Second best Hammers outplayed by Hornets

Arnautovic suffered a suspected broken hand

Watford 2 Hammers 0

David Moyes found out this afternoon exactly how serious the West Ham problem has become!

They were outplayed by a Watford team who had previously been on the crest of a slump having lost their last three games.

However, they had little trouble in overcoming a Hammers team with no confidence and an unerring ability to lose possession and make poor choices.

In fairness the Hammers did look fitter and kept going to the end of 98 minutes, added in the main as a result of Marko Arnautovic receiving what is suspected to be a broken hand.

The Hammers lost to an early goal from Hughes (11) and Richarlison (64) but despite being second second best, three world class save from Gomes kept them at bay.

He produced two incredible one handed saves from close range before getting a leg to a Lanzini shot on the goal line.

David Moyes was not a happy man afterwards declaring: “We need to start finding a way to win but we will have to play a lot better than that.”

In fairness the team battled but were pressed back particularly for long periods of the second half and the old sloppy passing failures and giving away of the ball is costing them dearly in terms of the pressure under which they are put.

It won’t do for the manager who has made it clear since he arrived that keeping possession is key to everything and coach Alan Irvine has been shouting: “It must be accurate” when observing passes on the training ground.

Make no mistake the Irons have a mountain to climb which may become a little easier when Michail Antonio returns but relegation fears are now very real despite the result doing no further harm to our position before the game.

Worrying times but let’s not dub the next game a “must win” – they ALL are now!