West Ham United eased the pressure on manager David Moyes as they breezed past Nottingham Forest after winning 4-0 at the London Stadium. Four goals in the second half proved enough for the Irons as Danny Ings opened his account. Declan Rice and Michail Antonio added to the lead. It is an afternoon that Forest fans will be furious at as the Reds are above West Ham in the table. It is a huge win for the Hammers as they jump to 16th in the table. Forest remain 13th and are now four points clear off the bottom three.
David Moyes made four changes to his side that lost at Tottenham last week. Lucas Paqueta, Ben Johnson, Said Benrahma and Danny Ings came into the side as Moyes looked for a turn around from the game against their London rivals. Paqueta was an injury doubt ahead of the match but would of gave West Ham fans some confidence going into the game seeing his name on the team sheet. Steve Cooper made two changes to his side that drew with champions Manchester City. Neco Williams came in for an injured Serge Aurier and Chris Wood came in for Danilo after his equaliser last week.
The first half offered very few chances but the first opportunity fell to the home side. After Navas punched a corner away it eventually found Paqueta. His low ball was deflected onto the post from a Forest man. The Hammers started the better of the sides and were amounting pressure on the Reds goal.
Forest then had one of their only chances of the game. Jonjo Shelvey sent in a free kick on the half way line and it found the head of Felipe. The Brazilian's looping header was tipped over the top by Lukasz Fabianski. The defender impressed last week against Manchester City and was looking to impress again.
That was it for the first half with the score at 0-0. Both teams struggling to create chances but it was West Ham seeing a lot of the ball on the edge of the Forest penalty area but not proving good enough to create anything. Forest really struggled to get anywhere near the the home sides penalty area. Seems to be an recurring theme for the Reds away from home. Moyes did make an change at half time, Aaron Cresswell came on for Vladimir Coufal.
Ten minutes into the second half, West Ham almost took the lead. Jarrod Bowen driving an low shot from the edge of the box hit the inside of the post and did not find a way in. The winger, who has played for England was looking to add to his goal tally of four goals in the league.
Then after Cooper took Jonjo Shelvey off for Andre Ayew, Forest had an 15 minutes that they will not want to remember. Ings opened the scoring on the 70 minute mark. After a switch of play from left to right, Bowen fired an low ball across and it was converted by the striker for his first goal since joining from Aston Villa.
The Englishman scored again just two minutes later. Forest gave away the ball from kick off and Benrahma found his way into the box before pulling it across for Ings to net his second, in similar fashion to how he scored his first. It was starting to feel like deja-vu for Forest as conceding in quick succession was happening at the start of the season.
The goals kept flowing for the Hammers as on the 78 minute mark, captain Declan Rice scored goal of the match. Benrahma was the provider again as he pulled it back for Rice on the edge of the box and he let fly from distance and found the top corner. The England international, who impressed at the World Cup, netting his second goal of the Premier League season and ultimately killing any hope that Forest had of getting back into the game.
Five minutes from time, an substitution combination wrapped up an excellent 15 minutes from the home side. Pablo Fornals sent in a cross from the left side and it was headed home by former Forest man Antonio. The former Red held back the celebrations as he still has a lot of respect for Forest after a successful spell in the 2014/15 season.
That was the final action of the game and for West Ham it is an huge three points in the race for survival. David Moyes had been under real pressure before the game but today proved the doubters wrong and pulled of an huge result. Forest will be scratching their heads wondering how they let that happen as they slowly slip back towards the bottom three. They need an response a week on Sunday as Sean Dyche's Everton visit the City Ground for a huge game. West Ham travel to Old Trafford to face an inform Manchester United. Moyes will be hoping to keep up a decent run of form after only one loss in their last five league games.
No comments:
Post a Comment