West Ham United suffered a blow in their push for Premier League survival on Wednesday night with a 3-0 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Goals from Nathan Ake and Phil Foden in the second half, either side of Erling Haaland’s record-breaking 35th Premier League goal of the season, sealed three points for City, condemning the Hammers to their third straight Premier League defeat.
As West Ham now have just four Premier League matches to seal their place in England’s top-flight, here are five of the major talking points from the Hammers’ 3-0 defeat.
READ MORE: David Moyes reveals mystery behind Declan Rice’s West Ham illness in Man City defeat
Opportunity not taken
In recent months, the one thing West Ham could always boast over the rest of the Premier League’s relegation zone was the fact they had a game in hand. However, it was always going to be a task to leave the Etihad Stadium with three, or even one, points in their back pocket, especially with City entering the match on the back of an 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
That challenge was made even harder before a ball was kicked, with midfield stars Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek and centre-back Nayef Aguerd all forced to withdraw hours before kick-off due to illness, adding to the ankle injury Kurt Zouma sustained in Saturday’s 4-3 loss at Crystal Palace.
Man City dominated the first half as many expected them to, but West Ham were doing enough to limit the chances they did have. Angelo Ogbonna led a makeshift back three that saw him, aided by Thilo Kehrer and Aaron Cresswell, make a number of big clearances to prevent City scoring in the first half of a Premier League game for the first time in six matches.
Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was also on hand to keep out a good effort from Riyad Mahrez and tip a Jack Grealish shot wide, aided by seeing Rodri’s run and strike hit the post in between those two stops.
West Ham had one glimmer of hope in the first half of attack when a Vladimir Coufal quick throw saw Jarrod Bowen run past and get the better of Ake, getting to the byline and seeing his cross-cum-shot batted away by Stefan Ortega, the only save he had to make before half-time.
Although West Ham had done well until the break, they were quick to recreate the number of poor starts to second halves they have made in matches this season, gifting City their opener at a set-piece when Flynn Downes hacked down Grealish on a counter attack. Some questionable marking led to Ogbonna forced to try and mark three City players at once, with Ake rising highest to head in unchallenged.
West Ham had not downed tools at all when Ake gave City the lead and showed some promise, but lacked pace, attacking intent or the bit of pizazz needed to get the better of City’s back line. Pablo Fornals’ attempted lob from the halfway line that failed to get off the ground, perhaps a damning indictment of the lack of threat West Ham carried.
Shortly after Danny Ings replaced Michail Antonio up front, Ings attempted to pass to Fornals as part of a spell of West Ham possession, but his poorly placed flick on the halfway line was dispossessed and eight seconds later, Haaland broke the Premier League record for most goals in a season after dinking a first-time finish over Fabianski.
Despite West Ham’s best efforts, City added a third when Lucas Paqueta’s header to clear a Mahrez corner found substitute Foden perfectly outside of the penalty area, unleashing a superb volley, helped on by Emerson’s heel, to beat Fabianski and complete the win.
Paqueta did force Ortega into one late save with a chance, which led to Fornals’ follow-up effort being blocked, but City’s back line had a largely trouble free evening.
Three defeats in a row leaves West Ham just four points clear of the bottom three with four games to go, knowing they could really do with at least one more win to feel as if they have done enough to survive.
With a meeting against Manchester United to come next out, and as many as six senior players potentially now absent, all of a sudden, it feels as if West Ham’s season could be drifting towards panic stations.
Food poisoning fiasco
Ahead of kick-off, there was a lot of concern and confusion over why Rice, Soucek and Aguerd, three players almost nailed-on to start, were not even in the matchday squad. However, despite all three travelling, the trio were forced to vacate the squad in the hours leading up to kick-off.
While Moyes would not say which players were suffering with which symptoms, one was sent home at 11am with concerns over a high temperature and virus, while two more left the squad at 2pm, with potential concerns over food poisoning. One staff member was also absent through illness.
Speaking after the game, Moyes detailed the concerns and how the pre-match plans were severely affected ahead of kick-off.
“I knew in the morning that there had been sickness and one of them had a real high temperature,” said Moyes. “One of them had to go away at 11 o’clock and the other two left at two o’clock today, once they weren’t going to get any better.
“We had given them a chance in the morning to recover, sleep longer, see how they were. They were in Manchester with the rest of the team so we had to send them away in cars later this afternoon to go home.
“There was another staff member who had sickness as well so that’s why we were worried if it was a bug or food poisoning, we weren’t sure what it was.”
Whatever it proves to be, losing a trio that included Rice and Soucek, who both had not been absent for a long game for 14 months and 16 months respectively was a huge blow on a night where the odds were already stacked against the Hammers.
Danny Ings dilemma
Despite a rocky season for Michail Antonio that saw him fall behind Gianluca Scamacca in the pecking order, then fall behind Danny Ings in the pecking order, almost leave in January and then stay, only to reclaim his place, it does leave a question mark surrounding Ings and his current role.
West Ham switched to a back three, due to their defensive issues in section, but like they have been playing with in a 4-3-3 formation, both shapes required a lone striker.
In recent weeks, Antonio has proved that he is absolutely the best fit for the role, now the club’s top scorer for the season with 13 goals, the joint-most he has recorded in a West Ham shirt.
Against City, he did not ever go close to scoring, or even having a shot, but when West Ham cleared the ball or found him to try and start counter attacks, Antonio did give City’s players something to think about, winning two fouls and nine of his 13 duels.
However, with the score still 1-0, Moyes opted to swap Antonio for Ings, something which would prove to haunt Moyes just minutes later as Ings lost the ball at the start of the move in which Haaland countered and scored his record breaking goal.
West Ham paid £12million for Ings in January knowing that he was a proven, experienced Premier League scoring record and despite his lack of minutes at Aston Villa before his arrival, had still managed six league goals for his old club this season.
A key for Ings is this system. He has a proven track record of being better in a two-man strike partnership, something which West Ham have not really used at all this season, or in recent years.
At Villa before his move, Ings scored six league goals at a rate of one goal every 136 minutes. For West Ham, his two goals have come at a rate of 285 minutes apiece, more than double that of his Villa record.
Antonio may not be the most prolific goalscorer in the Premier League, but what he does do, especially up front on his own, is ask questions of defenders, help win free-kicks, battle, run and just make himself a nuisance, something which Ings has not shown as strong of an ability of doing in his time in that position so far.
For as long as Moyes sticks with a lone striker, almost certain to be the rest of the season at the very least, this game and the Ings error highlighted why Antonio is the best striker option at the club, and by some way, right now.
Lucas Paqueta’s role
With both Rice and Soucek absent, Paqueta had a new role in the heart of midfield and formed an untried partnership in the middle of the pitch with Downes.
The Brazilian had to step up in midfield and try and control the game from the centre of the pitch, with Rice normally more in that role and Paqueta given more freedom to get forward, express himself and try and break the lines of the opposition defence.
Despite playing against a City side chasing a potential treble this season, Paqueta’s numbers and performance showed what the long-term future of West Ham’s midfield could look like, especially with all of the talk of Rice potentially leaving this summer.
In the game, Paqueta made 74 touches, almost 20 more than his average for a Premier League match this term of 54.8.
More touches did however see him lose the ball more times, losing possession 17 times compared to his average of 12.4. However, Paqueta’s proportion of losing the ball compared to how many touches made was once every 4.35, narrowly below his 4.42 average.
In terms of tackles, Paqueta did win four, averaging just 2.5 normally, while also slightly improving his percentage of duels won, winning 50% instead of 46%.
While Paqueta did not create add the spark creatively and frustrated at times when losing the ball, he also showed some classy, clever passing and trickery, all things he is likely to have combine with the ability to be the heartbeat of this West Ham team long term, should Rice leave as heavily reported.
With Rice missing a league game for the first time in over a year, there was a glimpse of how Paqueta would fare in a role which required more leadership and the metronome-like qualities Rice possesses. Not a bad start, and perhaps against a side less talented than City’s, there would have been more reason to have been wowed by Paqueta’s ability to fill that role.
Potential squad crisis
Having been almost fully-fit heading into Saturday’s loss at Palace, in a matter of days, West Ham have gone from one extreme to another.
For the game, West Ham were down to just 18 senior players, three of which were goalkeepers, with Gianluca Scamacca and Kurt Zouma injured and Rice, Soucek and Aguerd all ill.
To make matters worse, right-back Vladimir Coufal was forced off shortly after the hour mark, feeling his hamstring shortly after whipping in a second half cross.
There is the hope that Moyes will have Rice, Soucek and Aguerd back to face United on Sunday night, but if not, and if Coufal’s injury keeps him out, West Ham will have quite a dilemma on their hands with just a maximum of 17 senior players available.
On Sunday lunchtime, West Ham’s under-21s face Tottenham Hotspur in their final Premier League 2 match, with West Ham needing to avoid a defeat by three goals or more to stay up, with Tottenham getting relegated unless they record a convincing win over Mark Robson’s side.
If any of the regular under-21s are not seen on the team sheet at Tottenham, it could well mean they have been required to make up the numbers in Moyes’ squad.
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