After their midweek Europa League battle against Lyon, West ham produced a fatigued performance losing 2-0 away at Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
Injury Issues
A disjointed start from the Hammers was made worse within the first half an hour of the game as defensive duo of Craig Dawson and Kurt Zouma both suffered injuries with Zouma eventually forced off.
During a relatively quiet first half, neither team created any real chances of note until on the stroke of half time when West Ham’s Coufal headed an Eriksen freekick just over his own bar.
Slow Second Half
A sluggish start to the second half saw West Ham concede from a throw in that found its way to Ivan toney who laid in Bryan Mbeumo to slot the ball passed an on rushing Fabianski.
The 57th minute saw former Brentford’s favourite Benrahma receive rapturous applause from both sets of fans as David Moyes attempted to reduce the deficit, but West Ham’s task was made twice as hard five minutes later when Mbeumo returned the favour to Toney by cushioning a volleyed cross into West Ham’s box for the Brentford striker to header in.
Thursday night’s battle appeared to show on the West Ham players as Antonio was substituted after being well marshalled by his Jamaican international teammate Ethan Pinnock. Antonio’s last act of the game was a tired foul on Rico Henry for which he received a yellow card.
Although losing and disappointed with the result West Ham fans were still in full voice and reminded Brentford fans that their team were on a ‘European adventure’, and while their top four ambitions for this season suffered another blow, they were still having a memorable season as they continued to compete for both a top four position and the Europa League trophy.
After the game David Moyes told MOTD “I don’t have any complaints. We weren’t at it from the start. There are mitigating circumstances; we had a tough game on Thursday, and the Thursday – Sunday schedule is not ideal. The most part has been good but today felt like one too many”
West Ham travel away to Lyon for the second leg of their Europa League quarter final on Thursday night before another Sunday afternoon kick off at home to Burnley at 14.15.
