da pixbet： West Ham United would have known the tough task they faced to get any kind of positive result when they welcomed rampant Premier League champions Manchester City to the London Stadium on Sunday, but they also knew that they needed points themselves.
da dobrowin： The Irons came into the clash against Pep Guardiola’s men just three points above the relegation zone following Southampton’s 2-1 win against Bournemouth at St Mary’s on Saturday, and it had certainly put a bit more pressure on them to produce what should haveat least been a committed and top-drawer performance against a classy Citizens side.
The Irons needed to match or even try and beat their opponents in terms of effort and work rate, even if they knew they didn’t have as much quality.
That is what they did earlier in the campaign where they were seven minutes away from grabbing an unlikely point against City at the Etihad Stadium, and David Moyes and his players had a blueprint to work from following that impressive display.
They also knew following their 4-1 collapse against Arsenal previously, and with a trip to Leicester City before they host Manchester United and Everton in their final two matches, that they could still need another win to secure survival.
Moyes’ line-up against the Citizens never suggested to the team or the supporters that they were going to get anything from the game however, and the decision to bring in Patrice Evra for Arthur Masuaku was strange given as though the former is nowhere near as fast as he once was.
Even so, when you know you aren’t as good as your opposition, you need to have a plan, be organised and work hard, and it was just never the case during the whole 90 minutes with the players on the pitch perhaps beginning to feel that the London Stadium faithful are turning against Moyes.
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As was pointed out on Match of the Day 2 by Alan Shearer, too many of West Ham’s players were simply jogging about and happy to let their opposition not only have possession, but also break forward with the ball relatively unchallenged.
It wasn’t good enough when you are getting to the crunch stage of the campaign, and matters were hardly helped by the fact that Andy Carroll walked straight down the tunnel when he wasn’t part of Moyes’ triple substitution when the score was 4-1, coupled by the fact that Javier Hernandez came on and putting in a rather half-hearted 24 minutes.
Moyes and Carroll had a heated exchange on the training pitch the following day, while according to club insider @ExWHUemployee on Twitter, the Mexico international also raised concerns about his situation to his manager.
While the Scot must take some of the blame for such a lacklustre display, the majority of the players that were out on the pitch need to take a long, hard look at themselves, too.
And that includes captain Mark Noble, whose comments post-match were rightly slammed by his own fans on Twitter.
It seemed clear that some of those individuals weren’t playing for Moyes – as they weren’t for Slaven Bilic at the beginning of the campaign – and if that is the case then that is dangerous for the Irons in what is going to be a hugely important end to the season.
The former Manchester United manager needs to lay down the law and prove that he is an authority figure in training this week, and he has already done that by fining Carroll following the duo’s altercation on Monday – forcing an apology from the centre-forward.
The 55-year-old needs to reunite his squad and have them all working from the same page away against a Leicester side that already look to be on their holidays, and three points at the King Power Stadium could give them what they need to preserve their Premier League status for at least another year.