David Moyes cut a frustrated figure after seeing his West Ham United team edged out 2-1 by Arsenal and see their bid for a second consecutive top-six Premier League finish suffer a setback.
With UEFA Europa League semi-final ties either side of Sunday’s derby, Tomáš Souček was rested, while Craig Dawson was suspended and Issa Diop not fit to start after injury, so the manager opted to make changes to his starting XI against the Gunners.
The changes saw the average height of the Hammers side much reduced and, of course, Arsenal scored both their goals from headers from corners, leaving the Scot cursing his misfortune.
On a brighter note, the selection of Aaron Cresswell at centre-back and the introduction of Mark Noble and Saïd Benrahma to the team saw West Ham keep possession well against Mikel Arteta’s side, only for a lack of cutting edge in the final third to cost the home side at least a share of the spoils.
The Irons’ goal came from the reliable source of Jarrod Bowen, who equalised with a deflected shot on the stroke of half-time, but a second just would not come, no matter how hard Moyes’ men tried.
Now, the manager’s task is to clear tired minds and refuel tired bodies for Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Eintracht Frankfurt…
I thought we did OK. I thought we played quite well.
I thought we kept the ball better than we have done and played better with the ball than we have done in a few weeks, but we didn’t really have any sort of forward build-up when we needed it.
But, I’ve got to say, I thought we played quite well.
I thought it was more than the final ball.
I think it was a positive which we have to take that we were much better on the ball today.
We made a few changes and maybe a few people gave us different sorts of skillsets, but the one we lost was that we took the height out of the team today and we ended up losing to set pieces.
That’s what happens is that when you put some of the bigger players in, you’re more robust and it helps you at set pieces, but the minute we take them out we become vulnerable and that was noticeable today.
Jarrod scored again and that’s good for him, but he probably could have changed us the game if he’d left his foot in against the goalkeeper in the challenge with their goalkeeper that he made.
But he’s a great boy and I’m sure he wasn’t going in any way [to simulate].
Bu you see so many players now, the goalkeepers come rushing out and the centre forward leaves his foot in and lets the goalie take him out and I think Jarrod could easily have done that today.
We’ll get ready for Thursday but we’re not ready for it today.
The only way we could get in Europe today was to qualify through our league position and that’s why today was so important.
Of course we’ve got another chance to do it a different way and we’re going to try and do that as well, but the only thing in my head at the moment is this game and how we try to get rid of it and get ready for Thursday.
