West Ham’s players and manager David Moyes will tuck into their Christmas dinners on December 25 sitting in tenth place in the Premier League table after a good start to the campaign but deflated having lost 3-0 to Chelsea.
We doubt it'll be a full blown turkey with all the trimmings and a dose of Christmas Pudding for desert, more like some steamed chicken pasta and superfood vegetable, but it will be no easier to stomach after the loss in west London.
The scoreline flattered the home side at Stamford Bridge as West Ham made a game of it following the Blues’ lightning start, Thiago Silva putting the home side in front inside ten minutes.
Between minutes nine and 78, West Ham had Chelsea on the back foot, capitalising on the anxiety in Frank Lampard’s side after two straight away defeats for the former Hammers midfielder’s expensively assembled squad.
Declan Rice had a goal rightly ruled out for offside, Jarrod Bowen should have levelled as well but the referee’s whistle put an end to that after the slightest touch, if any on goalscorer Silva in the box.
Had the Hammers made it 1-1 then the game would have changed entirely as there only looked like one team winning it. Moyes’ men would have been good value for a result but the cold, hard facts are there - they didn’t have a shot on target all night apart from their two disallowed strikes.
Moyes’ side had their patient build-up play, Aaron Cresswell’s delivery was good but Vladimir Coufal’s was not. Moyes tried to unlock the key by throwing on Said Benrahma after 65 minutes but it was arguably too late.
Tammy Abraham netted a quickfire brace to show how finishing should be done and the Hammers were on the end of a 3-0 reverse they shouldn’t have been.
Moyes’ side haven’t necessarily struggled badly without Michail Antonio, they have won four of their last seven games prior to Christmas, but their attack has looked toothless and overly-reliant on their set piece prowess.
Sebastien Haller had another tough night at Stamford Bridge. True, some of the service up to him wasn’t good but he was easily dealt with by a combination of Silva and Kurt Zouma. Playing Mark Noble as a number ten was a bold call, the midfielder doesn’t have the legs to keep up with Haller’s knockdowns.
Moyes' comments after the game were not a shot at Haller as such but it was clear the manager thinks he needs something else in the final third. With Antonio out and Haller playing, there was no substitute striker on the bench despite the number of subs allowed now increased to nine.
It’s far too soon for youngster Mipo Odubeko to step up and Xande Silva is away on loan. The Hammers manager named two keepers on his bench, such was his lack of options.
Speaking after the game if he felt he needed another frontman, the Scot replied: “Well I hope we get Micky back, soon. If we don't then we need to think about what else we are going to do, how we are going to do it because I think we just need alternatives or options, we are a bit limited with that.
“If not, we need to start looking within my own group to see if I can find another Marko Arnautovic or Micky Antonio, I think that’s what I am going to try and do.”
While Moyes didn’t mention Haller’s name, his comments said a lot. The Hammers have been strongly linked with a move for Bournemouth’s Josh King in January, a player they wanted in the summer before settling on Benrahma.
West Ham are a better team with Antonio in it, there is no doubt. Those eight goals he netted after the first national lockdown fired the Hammers to safety and he scored three times this season too before suffering the first of his two hamstring injuries.
A new contract and no doubt a bump in wages will see Antonio with a spring in his step when he returns, which could be to the bench on the 27th against Brighton but there is such caution with his return.
An injury to his talisman will see Moyes revert to a style he seemingly doesn’t want to play yet has not choice but to do so. It’s not a given he will sign a frontman in January with the financial implications of the pandemic and behind closed doors football.
Either way, Antonio’s return will shape West Ham’s season. For the good if he can stay fit, but if he can’t then it could be a struggle for Moyes to replicate his excellent first six months of 2019/20.
