West Ham United are now on a five-match losing streak in the Premier League after falling to a 2-0 defeat to Brentford in the Premier League on Friday night.
First half goals from Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva sealed three points for the Bees at the London Stadium seeing West Ham slip to 17th in the Premier League table and just a point clear of the bottom three, knowing they could slip into the relegation zone before they next play on Wednesday night away at struggling rivals Leeds United.
For the Hammers, they are now on their worst run of form in England's top-flight for the first time since April 2017. Here are five of the major talking points from the game.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva goals put Hammers in real relegation battle
Relegation threat very real
West Ham's chance of getting the season back on track has already gone backwards before going forwards, wasting a chance at home to a Brentford side who had only won one league match on the road all season.
The Hammers started on the front foot and with an excellent tempo, but like many of their performances so far this term, that early momentum soon faded. Declan Rice thought he opened the scoring in similar fashion to the goal he scored at Southampton in October, coming in from the left and drilling a curled effort towards goal, denied only by the outside of the far post.
David Moyes' men continued to produce wave after wave of attack, but the amount of times that they even forced Brentford stopper David Raya into action could be counted on one hand, and with fingers to spare.
Brentford went direct in their approach to getting a way in the game and very quickly, it worked. Christian Norgaard's volley at the end of a Mathias Jensen long throw-in forced a good stop out of Lukasz Fabianski, but Toney's quick instincts were too good for Aaron Cresswell and Emerson to prevent him from netting for the 12th time in this season's Premier League. Toney's tally is just one behind that of the entire West Ham squad this season.
West Ham attempted to not let the goal get them down as they continued fighting and largely looked the better side in the first half, but again, a throw-in got the better of them. Toney's long pass from just past the halfway line got over the top of Cresswell, with Dasilva catching up to and soon overtaking Cresswell on the chase before calmly slotting past Fabianski to turn West Ham's chances of a result from challenging to near impossible.
Again, West Ham huffed and puffed, but failed cross after failed cross came into the box, and were cleared out of it just as quickly, with Vladimir Coufal and Cresswell among those who could do next to nothing, despite their best attempts to.
Moyes tried going direct himself, throwing Michail Antonio on to partner Gianluca Scamacca with 25 minutes to go. It helped, but barring a long shot from Scamacca that forced Raya to awkwardly parry, one of the only other chances in the second half came from an Antonio run and air shot, tackling himself with his left foot while trying to shoot with his right.
Dawson, like he did in the first half, came close with a header late on, forcing Raya to parry; but as soon as Brentford scored one, the result looked inevitable. The second was just a further sucker punch. The fact of the matter is, West Ham could have played for a further few hours, maybe even days, and a goal was still looking highly doubtful.
Despite regular denial and confidence from Moyes, captain Rice and others around the team that the club are not in a relegation battle, five straight league losses for the first time in over five years means in reality, they have to accept they are in a fight for survival for as long as they continue this lull.
Fortunately for them, their next three games are all against sides currently sat between 15th and 18th in the Premier League table alongside themselves, with meetings against Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton suddenly turning into relegation six-pointers.
Pressure building
Moyes, who celebrated the third anniversary of his second spell at West Ham on Thursday, can look back at this spell at the club with great fondness and many happy memories. However, while memories of Europe during the past year or so have been deservedly treasured, really, they do mask problems that have been going on domestically for a year now.
In 2022, West Ham played 36 Premier League matches and won just 11, drawing six and losing the remaining 19. That works out at an average of 1.08 points per match. Across a whole season, 1.08 works out at just over 41 points for a 38 game season, which last season would have seen the Hammers finish above only last season’s bottom six.
Over the same 12-month period, West Ham have played 14 games in Europe, with runs in the knockout rounds of last season’s Europa League and this season’s Europa Conference League combined. However, they have won 10, drawn one and lost three, just one less win they have in the Premier League, but in 22 fewer matches.
Sure, Europe has been fantastic, as well as the memories that come with that, and it has given Moyes more breathing room. However, such goodwill appears to be dwindling, from the fans at least, especially given their current run of form.
For now, Moyes is safe, but how long will that last? Days? Weeks? It is very tough to say. This four-game run, starting with a loss to Brentford, feels like the make or break run. The logical thing would be to give Moyes this run and see where West Ham are after it, but in football, sometimes, such luxuries are not afforded.
Tactical gamble backfires
One thing Moyes cannot be criticised for is his attempts to try something different to inspire a change in form and results.
Having spent the vast majority of the season playing a 4-2-3-1, Moyes opted for a formation change to a 3-4-2-1 and with it, some surprise selection decisions.
In a list of firsts, it was the first time Tomas Soucek did not start in the league this season, the first time Thilo Kehrer did not start in the Premier League since his move from Paris Saint-Germain, the first time Rice and Lucas Paqueta started in a midfield partnership and the first time Angelo Ogbonna started a league since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament almost 14 months ago.
Sadly, the left-field team selection did not work and when the team news came out, with it, was a sense of if it worked: then brilliant. But if it did not, Moyes was only ever going to invite more pressure onto himself. It was the case of the latter.
For the sake of getting certain players in the side, on paper at least, the call made sense. But it severely backfired, leaving West Ham in an even worse position than they were before kick-off.
Scoring woes continue
West Ham had 20 shots in the game and five on target, but really, Brentford goalkeeper David Raya can hardly say he was tested during the match.
Of the five on target, Emerson and Dawson were the only ones to force real saves. Scamacca’s first half header trickled at Raya, while his second was a long shot that did lead to Raya parrying and Bowen’s was a mere daisy-cutter.
In the past five league games, West Ham have scored just two goals, with both coming from Said Benrahma. Only Everton, Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers have scored fewer league goals this term and it is a concern that has refused to go away all season.
The wrong records being broken
West Ham are currently on their worst run of league results since the back end of the 2016/17 season but are just one more consecutive away defeat from going even further.
A sixth straight defeat, if it happens away at Leeds on Wednesday, would see the Hammers suffer six consecutive league defeats for the first time since March 2010.
It is wretched form at present, to put it bluntly, and for a side who achieved two top seven finishes prior to this season, in the space of 12 months, they have gone from Champions League hopefuls to Championships fearful.
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