Daily WHUFC News - 4th March 2018

West Ham fall to 4-1 defeat at Swansea
WHUFC.com

Swansea City 4 - 1 West Ham United
Premier League

West Ham United fell to a 4-1 defeat at Swansea City on Saturday, conceding
a brace of goals in each half to allow the Swans to draw level with them on
30 points in the Premier League table. Michail Antonio scored the Club's
1,000th Premier League goal with eleven minutes left on a disappointing day
in South Wales, but it was no consolation in answer to the home side's
four-goal blast. Ki Sung-Yueng got the goalscoring underway early on,
drilling a shot into the bottom corner, before Mike van der Hoorn and Andy
King scored from corners and Jordan Ayew made it four from the spot. West
Ham got off to the worst possible start, falling behing with just eight
minutes on the clock. Ki was the goalscorer, stroking into the bottom right
hand corner with his left foot after being afforded too much time on the
edge of the box. Nine minutes later it was so nearly 2-0 from a goalmouth
scramble. van der Hoorn couldn't force past Adrian with the first attempt,
and from the follow-up, Declan Rice was positioned on the line to block from
Federico Fernandez. Winston Reid sustained what looked to be a nasty looking
neck injury in the melee and was stretchered off after an eight-minute
stoppage, forcing the Hammers into a defensive reshuffle with Sam Byram
coming off the bench and Pablo Zabaleta moving inside to centre back. Still
the Swans were enjoying the better of the contest and Adrian had to beat
away an Andre Ayew effort on 31, but from the following corner, van der
Hoorn was granted a free run at the ball to head Ki's left-wing corner home.

The Hammers introduced Michail Antonio at the break, but three minutes after
the restart the mountain they faced became yet higher as King knocked home
after Adrian saved Andre Ayew's header from another corner. Marko Arnautovic
had an opportunity to reduce the arrears with 57 minutes on the clock, but
Lukasz Fabianski was able to grab the shot after the Austria forward left
Alfie Mawson on the deck. Six minutes later it was well and truly game over
as Cheikhou Kouyate felled Andre Ayew in the box and his brother Jordan
stepped up to beat Adrian from 12 yards. Michail Antonio did register a
consolation eleven minutes from time, collecting Aaron Cresswell's free-kick
from deep, turning and shooting low into the net, but it was too little, too
late for the visitors.

Swansea City: Fabianski, Naughton, van der Hoorn, Mawson, Fernandez (c)
Olsson, Clucas (Abraham 90), King (Carroll 81), Ki, A. Ayew (Dyer 78), J.
Ayew
Subs: Nordfeldt, Bartley, Narsingh, Britton
Goals: Ki 8, van der Hoorn 32, King 48, J.Ayew 63

West Ham United: Adrian, Rice, Reid (Byram 26), Cresswell, Zabaleta, Noble
(c), Kouyate, Evra (Antonio 46), Lanzini, Arnautovic, Chicharito
Subs: Hart, Mario, Cullen, Browne, Hugill
Goal: Antonio 79
Booked: Noble, Kouyate, Arnautovic

Referee: Martin Atkinson

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Noble: West Ham fans didn't deserve our performance at Swansea
WHUFC.com

Mark Noble thanked West Ham United's loyal supporters for braving snow and
sub-zero temperatures to attend Saturday's 4-1 Premier League defeat at
Swansea City. The captain issued an apology to the Claret and Blue Army
after the Hammers were heavily beaten at the Liberty Stadium, where the
Swans scored twice in each half to render Michail Antonio's late strike a
mere consolation. With hundreds of supporters travelling through challenging
conditions to reach South Wales in time for kick-off, Noble admitted the
team's performance simply had not been good enough. "Nothing seemed to go
right and it was one of those games where if something could have gone wrong
went wrong," said the skipper. "It's down to us now to pick ourselves up.
"We've spoken in the dressing room and we need to put this behind us as
there is no point dwelling on it. It was a bad result and a bad performance,
but we've got nine more games and we need to pick points up.
"I can't believe how many fans turned up, to be honest. We drove through the
snow on Friday and it took us just under seven hours to get here on a coach,
but it was a poor performance from us. "They know we appreciate them coming
here, especially me, and that's West Ham fans for you; they're always going
to be here in numbers cheering and they didn't deserve what happened."

Noble dismissed the suggestion that a second straight 4-1 defeat, following
a loss by the same scoreline at Liverpool, would affect their confidence and
performances going forward. "I wouldn't say it's damaging because this is
the Premier League and these results can happen. We didn't play well, it's
as simple as that. "We need to get back to basics. We've got three home
games coming up which are key to our season, I think, so we need to get some
wins there. "This leaves us in the same boat as everyone else, really. We're
all fighting to get out of that bottom three and I think it's going to go
down to the wire. We've just got to win games."

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Moyes: It was the worst performance in my time at West Ham
WHUFC.com

David Moyes apologised to the Claret and Blue Army after West Ham United
produced their 'worst performance' of his reign in losing 4-1 at Swansea
City. The Hammers travelled to South Wales hoping to score a victory that
would stretch the distance between themselves and the Swans to six points,
but instead left the Liberty Stadium below their opponents in the Premier
League table. West Ham conceded two 'avoidable' goals in each half - one
from outside the box, two from corners and the fourth from a penalty -
before substitute Michail Antonio grabbed a late consolation. "It's a big
sorry to the supporters who traveled through the snow to get here," admitted
the manager. "We let them down badly. We're massively disappointed with how
we played and it was certainly the worst performance since I've been at West
Ham and we just never looked at any time as if we were in control. "For the
first goal, we were passing it across the back, then passed it back to the
goalie, it bobbled and went out for a throw-in, and from the throw-in we
concede the first goal from something I think we should save. "We then
conceded two goals from corner kicks and one from a penalty kick, so from my
point of view, they were all avoidable. I didn't think it was Swansea who
opened us up or carved us open, but it was just generally a poor performance
and poor all-round. "We had a couple of half-chances in the second half and
started the second half with more intensity, but the first time Swansea went
up into our half, they got a corner and scored from it."

Moyes refused to blame the wintry weather conditions which affected his
squad's preparations for the game, forcing them to embark on a seven-hour
road journey to Swansea on Friday after their afternoon flight was
cancelled. "It did not affect us at all, not whatsoever. The game should 100
per cent have been on today. The pitch was fine. The weather was fine and at
no point did I say the game should be off. All I said on Friday was that the
Met Office were telling people not to travel."

To add injury to the insult of a heavy defeat, Winston Reid was stretchered
off after being knocked out during a goalmouth scramble and then hurting his
knee as he fell awkwardly in the first half. "Winston has been knocked
unconscious and concussed and it's his secondary injury we're more worried
about. When he's fallen, he's hurt his knee in some way, and that's our
bigger concern. "He's in the dressing room and is talking, so he's got no
problem that way, but we need to get his knee checked to see exactly what
the problem is."

Moyes was grateful for the support of the loyal West Ham fans who travelled
to South Wales for Saturday's game, and hopes to reward them with a better
performance and better result when Burnley visit London Stadium next
Saturday. "We beat Watford at home, then went away to Liverpool and Swansea,
but we've got enough home games left to show what we're capable of. "I'm
more disappointed for a lot of the supporters who travelled from London, who
witnessed a really, really poor performance. "We can say there were
mitigating circumstances, with four or five players who would all start
being unavailable, because we don't have enough to carry us when we have so
many players out, but I can only say to the supporters that I'll do
everything I can to make sure we are ready for the next game and hopefully
they're behind us when we get to London Stadium next week."

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