West Ham’s weekend could have been such a brilliant one. On a day where Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich lost, with Brighton also drawing (premierleague.com), the Hammers put in a performance against Arsenal that could easily have resulted in a win, yet they fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat.
West Ham outperformed Arsenal when it came to the xG from the game, albeit only narrowly, edging out Arsenal 1.61 to the Gunners’ 1.56 (understat) but the chances created just weren’t converted, and now the fans have been left to rue another defeat.
However, a big part of the defeat was the fact that the Hammers waited so long before making any changes. The Irons enjoyed a strong performance, firing off 20 shots, with 14 on target, as well as having seven corners to the Gunners’ six (Transfermarkt), but Moyes waited until conceding to make any changes, and this left them with little time to get back into the game.
Alexandre Lacazette’s VAR given goal was scored on 78 minutes, by which point Mike Arteta had already made two of his three changes, including bringing on the goalscorer for Eddie Nketiah, whilst Moyes was left flat-footed, bringing on Tomas Soucek for Mark Noble on 81 minutes and two later subs on the 87th and 90th-minute marks (Transfermarkt).
Obviously had chances been taken in the game when they fell to the likes of Michail Antonio and Sebastien Haller then it would be have been a very different game, but Moyes is the man paid to make the right changes and keep things from going stale on the pitch, and after seeing his side take ten shots to Arsenal’s six before the goal (WhoScored), a change should have been made to add a clinical touch.
Should we keep Moyes beyond the summer?
Yes
No
However, what’s done is now done, and the Hammers will have to take the positives from their display and move on. There certainly are positives that can be taken to given the shot count and chances they made, so now Moyes has the job of trying to keep the performance high into the next game against Wolves.
