The rogue whistler in the London Stadium crowd who briefly fooled West Ham and Aston Villa’s players into thinking full-time had come prematurely might have been more welcome had he been blowing time early on the Hammers’ Premier League campaign.
The domestic season has been a grind for David Moyes’s side virtually from the outset, and with the Hammers this morning outside the relegation zone only on goal difference after Sunday’s 1-1 draw, most, you sense, would shake hands now on slender survival.
