It is now three straight defeats for West Ham but losing to Manchester City is no disgrace and neither was this performance from a depleted Hammers side.
Facing Pep Guardiola’s City is tough enough at the best of times and that task for West Ham was made harder after a sickness bug swept through their squad.
Captain Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Nayef Aguerd were all ruled out on Wednesday afternoon, forcing David Moyes into a late team change in a makeshift 5-4-1 formation.
But West Ham defended resolutely for long periods, there was plenty to admire about their performance and, crucially, their goal difference did not take a hammering.
They remain just four points above the relegation zone but know one more victory should be enough to secure survival.
Moyes will target that win at home against Manchester United on Sunday, which would leave West Ham to focus on their Europa Conference League semi-final with AZ Alkmaar.
City have been unstoppable in recent weeks and Moyes will have been encouraged by the defensive resoluteness his side showed that has been lacking of late.
Set up with a five-man defence which included three conventional full-backs in Emerson Palmieri, Aaron Cresswell and Thilo Kehrer, West Ham frustrated City in the first-half.
“The defensive structure from West Ham was exceptional”, said Guardiola after City failed to score in the first half at the Etihad for only the third time this season.
Moyes later described what happened next as “galling”, after his side left Nathan Ake to head home completely unmarked from a free-kick early in the second half.
Suddenly all the hard work done by West Ham in the first half had been undone.
“It was a poor one [to concede] against a side who can score some great ones”, Moyes admitted.
Kehrer was caught on his heels as Erling Haaland netted his record-breaking 35th Premier League goal of the season. But West Ham had every right to feel the scoreline did not fairly reflect their display when Phil Foden’s deflected volley made it 3-0 late on.
Ahead of a big few weeks for West Ham, the real positive was the way they defended City’s blizzard of attacks as a unit.
Kehrer and Angelo Ogbonna limited Haaland to just one clear-cut chance all night — which, of course, he took — while Vladimir Coufal defended well against Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva.
Coufal was replaced by Ben Johnson after 62 minutes last night as an injury precaution after feeling his hamstring.
He was due to undergo scans on Thursday and is a doubt for Sunday’s game against Manchester United at the London Stadium, but Moyes is optimistic Rice, Soucek, Aguerd will be fit to return.
“Two of them we’re not sure if it’s food poising, maybe from the training ground or the hotel,” said the West Ham manager.
“One of them we think is a virus. Hopefully they’ll have a chance [to face United at] the weekend. There was another staff member with the same sickness as well, so that’s why we were worried that it was either food poising or worse.”
