BURNLEY PILE FRESH MISERY ON MOYES’ HAMMERS
WHAT a difference a week made for West Ham. Back at the London Stadium seven days after victory over Chelsea seemingly gave their survival bid lift-off, they failed to hit anything like the same heights last night. They were significantly flatter on their return home and, this time, failed to make their big moments count. This loss to Burnley, on the back of sloppily blowing the lead twice at Newcastle, means they remain far too close to the bottom three for comfort. Hammers boss David Moyes, whose side face doomed Norwich on Saturday, said: ‘I’m disappointed we didn’t take something. This was a must-win and Newcastle was a must-win. We’ve been in that situation for a while since I took the job.’ While West Ham, just four points above the bottom three, continue to look over their shoulder, Burnley are doing the opposite. They are still in the running for Europe, to the immense credit of Sean Dyche and his squad amid ongoing doubts about his future and a growing injury list.
Jay Rodriguez produced the game’s decisive moment with a perfectly-placed first-half header from Charlie Taylor’s cross, his tenth goal of the season and 50th for Burnley. But they were also indebted to a rock-solid rearguard and keeper Nick Pope. ‘Nick was outstanding and so were the entire back five,’ said Dyche. Although missing Ben Mee, Jack Cork and Ashley Barnes among others, Burnley posed most of the early threat, going close through Erik Pieters and Matej Vydra. West Ham livened up after the first drinks break, Michail Antonio threatening twice either side of Tomas Soucek testing Pope with a close-range flying volley. The half ended with Antonio hitting Pope’s post before the England keeper denied Andriy Yarmolenko. Burnley defended with real determination, albeit stand-in skipper James Tarkowski escaped with just a yellow for a high challenge on Jarrod Bowen. ‘It’s a red card,’ said Moyes. ‘It’s not going to change anything but it might have done during the game.’ The Scot then turned to the fit-again Sebastien Haller. Presented with a golden chance with his first touch, Haller’s finish was poor and Pope came out on top, sticking out a boot to repel West Ham’s best chance.