Moyes ensured he gave Jesse an embrace at the end
Fair play to Jesse Lingard – he was never rub it in after the worldie which finally proved the winning goal at the London Stadium yesterday (Sunday).
He could almost have been forgiven for doing so such was the splendour of his goal but memories of the London Stadium last season and the respect paid to him by the Hammers fans stopped it in its tracks.
He showed tremendous maturity in keeping the celebration to less than a minimum and that was all down to the welcome he had received when arriving on the pitch.
The England international, who scored an 89th-minute winner on his return to the London Stadium after reigniting his career on loan at West Ham last season, was given a loud round of applause upon his introduction from the bench in the second half on Sunday.
He of course deserved it after his efforts at the club last season has more than helped us into a Europa League and Premier League season which which until yesterday at least had started to look so do.
After yesterday’s game he commented: “They supported me in the loan spell and gave me a great reception, so it was only right to pay them back,” Lingard said of the West Ham fans.
“It was a great reception from the West Ham fans. I had a brilliant time here, but I had to do my bit.”
West Ham boss David Moyes gave Lingard a warm embrace on the touchline after the game and hailed his former player for bouncing back.
“I was laughing [with him] but more importantly I said how well he recovered from his mistake in midweek,” said Moyes.
“Jesse got a second chance to bounce back as a player when he was at West Ham last year so we’ll always be grateful for what he did for us. I wish he hadn’t scored but we had a chance to get a draw out of it [through Mark Noble’s penalty] and we missed our chance.”