David Moyes ‘embarrassed’ at defeat by Crystal Palace ‘so bad I cannot put it into words’

Crystal Palace have provided added ammunition to those who want to see the back of David Moyes as West Ham manager. At the end of a week in which the Hammers went out of the Europa League, this was not a result or performance to persuade anyone that the Scot, who is out of contract this summer, should stay in charge at the London Stadium.

Goals from Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta, along with an own goal by Emerson, left Moyes’s men four goals adrift in just over half an hour.  Michail Antonio pulled one back before half time, but Mateta scored again in the second half while another own goal, debited to Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson, was no consolation whatever.

West Ham have now lost nine of their last 13 away games in all competitions and have failed to keep a clean sheet in 14 Premier League games. It was their worst defeat since they went down 5-0 to Fulham at Craven Cottage on December 10.

Moyes denied that the result would have any bearing on his future at the club. “No, nothing to do with it,” he said. “If my future is taken out of my hands then fine, no problem.”

But he added: “I am so disappointed for the supporters who came in today and in truth I am embarrassed to sit here and be speaking on behalf of the team and the way they have performed today – but I am the manager.

“I have got to say I have not had many teams who have played like that in my whole career. The first half was as bad as I have seen us play. We have had three or four similar games this season, where I could not believe the team.

“But I don’t think the team in the three years I have been here have gone to the depths in those games this year. Today the first half was unacceptable. We didn’t compete.

“I am giving no excuses whatsoever. The players got praised for their performance on Thursday night against Bayer Leverkusen. But today was so bad I cannot put it into words.”

Palace recorded back-to-back victories for the first time this season following their 1-0 success at Liverpool, and Oliver Glasner had another victory over Moyes to add to Eintracht Frankfurt’s victory, 3-1 over two legs, against West Ham in the 2021-22 Europa League semi-final.

This was just the sixth time in the present campaign that Eze and Olise have started a league match together and raises the question of what Palace could have achieved had both been injury-free more often. Olise has scored seven goals in just 14 appearances this season, while Eze, who was almost unplayable, missed the whole of February. He now has 18 goals and seven assists since the start of last season.

“It was an amazing performance and an amazing win,” Glasner said. “Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise are both excellent players and important for our offence. But all the players worked very hard. One of the biggest differences since I came is here that now we have so many of our injured players back.”

Palace led after six minutes as Olise beat goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski to Joachim Anderson’s cross and headed in.

Nine minutes later Kurt Zouma gave the ball away, Fabianski blocked Mateta’s shot and Eze volleyed home the rebound.  Four more minutes and Will Hughes’ chip into the box was stabbed into his own net by the hapless Emerson.

To say that West Ham were in disarray would be a massive understatement. Palace missed several more chances before Mateta, completely unmarked, knocked in Olise’s cross after further good work by Eze.

A number of West Ham fans headed for the exits at that point and missed the goal pulled back after 40 minutes by Antonio, who was making his 250th Premier League appearance for the club. It was the fourth successive start against Palace in which he has scored, but it counted for little as the home side restored their four-goal advantage after 64 minutes when Eze poked the ball through Zouma’s legs for Mateta, unmarked again.

Eze and Jeffrey Schlupp could have added to the misery but the last laugh of this comedy of errors came when Henderson allowed Tyrick Mitchell’s backpass under his foot and in.