The Hammers came good when it really mattered tonight and have now made themselves all but safe for another season in the Premier League.
David Moyes managed to screw a performance out of the team and in doing so put us in a position where we can enjoy the rest of the season.
It means the team can face two Conference fixtures and games against Brentford, Leeds and Leicester City with freedom.
Nobody is gonna care that the goal came as a result of De Gea’s awful error from Benrahma’s shot and it could easily have been two or three whilst once again we were denied a goal via VAR.
David Moyes delivered his verdict
None of that mattered in the end as the hammers all but secured Premier League football next season on the back of possibly their best performance of the season.
And speaking to www.whufc.com after the game the manager’s relief was so evident.
He said: “We went through the emotions – and we thoroughly deserved to get a second goal.
Whether it would have been through a penalty, or some of the shots we had, or the goal that was disallowed, I thought we warranted, and played well enough to get, a second goal tonight.
But while we couldn’t, it was a case of what we did at the other end – could we keep them out? And thankfully we did tonight.
“We needed a top performance and tonight I felt we were getting much closer to it.
We were better with the ball, harder working, more compact when we needed to be because we played a really good team tonight and we’ll play another one on Thursday in AZ, as you don’t play bad teams in European semi-finals either. Everyone’s got to be ready to help us get to a final.
You have to get the shots on target.
If he (Saïd Benrahma) gets them on target we might score. We needed that bit of fortune and let’s be fair, we’ve not had much fortune with refereeing decisions recently, and I have to say we’re probably due a couple of penalty kicks in the coming games with the way things have been going.
We played with a bit of pomp tonight. Of course there were periods when we couldn’t have the ball because they were so good with it, but we had bits but Michail Antonio was a threat.
When he got hold of it we looked as though we were ready to break. Declan was excellent in midfield, getting up onto the second balls and getting the game started for us.
Lucas Paquetá at the moment is giving us lots of bits of magic to get us out of trouble. There were a couple of chances where I thought he could have played better passes through, but lots of good things today.
But I thought they were very good tonight and the goalkeeper has been fabulous too.”
Last night just proved how good a squad we are which also makes the decision to part ways with Moyes a very easy decision. The performance was excellent last night but it was a nice exception but no way reflects the rubbish we have been served this season by Moyes We have been extremely lucky too that the teams below us have really struggled. I heard that the 5 teams below us have won only 6 out of 50 games played over the last few months. Moyes has had a terrible run of results and performances for the best part of 18 months now. I hope we win the ECL to say thank you to him but it’s time for change.
I hope WH win the ECL too. Moyes has said we’re unlikely to add to the squad we have in the summer. I find this hard to believe what with the probability of Rice moving on, not to mention players who’ll be shown the door, and the excellent youths we have not getting a chance next season. The squad , as a whole, is seriously lacking. I’m not expecting a similar outlay as last summer but replacements look inevitable.
He doesn’t know what he’s on about and probably won’t be here