End-of-season games often have a slightly curious dynamic, a sense of being played at cross-purposes. On the one hand, there was Manchester City battling for the win as they pursue a fourth league title in five years. On the other, West Ham basking in the knockings of a season well done and determined to celebrate the final home game of one of their greatest recent players, Mark Noble.
When Noble came on with quarter of an hour remaining, what did that mean? He had played just 308 league minutes previously this season. Would he have come on had this not been his grand farewell? Does it matter? Would Liverpool fans who, if social media was anything to go by, were bizarrely aggrieved by the VAR award of an obvious penalty, have been aggrieved that West Ham in effect turned the final quarter of an hour into a testimonial?
As it was, with Lukasz Fabianski saving that Riyad Mahrez penalty, the score remained 2-2, meaning that there is still life in the Premier League title race, that there remains the possibility that Steven Gerrard could at last win Liverpool a league title by leading his Aston Villa side to a point or better at the Etihad next weekend. But the Noble factor shaped the game. This was, after all, as the pitchside announcer insisted, Mark Noble Day: the post-match obsequies were so maudlin they might have been a funeral on EastEnders.
There were montages – “one of our own”, “Canning Town-born, claret-and-blue-raised”, “that Custom House grit”; a voiceover from Danny Dyer; Ben Shephard on the pitch; testimony from fans, at least one of whom had named their dog after him; clips of him in various scenarios in various seasons, hair magnificently consistent (his son, happily, seems to have inherited the family parting); and a minute’s applause in the 17th minute in celebration of his No 16 shirt. Pep Guardiola gave him a hug and a lengthy lecture at the final whistle. Even Prince Albert II of Monaco came to pay his respects.
This has been another good year for West Ham. There have been memorable wins over Liverpool and Chelsea, a Europa League run that will be talked about for years and a sense that the London Stadium has at last come to feel like home. Maybe they’ll qualify for the Europa League again, may have to be content with the Europa Conference League, but the distinction is never going to generate the sort of tension that might have impinged on the general good humour. One team was relaxed, one was not and, for a time, that threatened a serious upset.
It wouldn’t quite be true to say West Ham were 2-0 up at half‑time by mistake, but there was an odd sense that the pressure that is usually induced by City’s domination of the ball simply wasn’t there. And when the ball was belted forward, when the space behind City’s characteristically high line was tested, Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen went galloping gleefully after it.
It all seemed tremendous fun. City’s press was shaky, their willingness to compete for second balls limited. Were they really going to blow it in such a characteristic way?
They did not, and a draw should still be enough. But this at least was a proper examination, they had to pass a test of their character and will have another one next Sunday. If they do hold on to defend the title, this will have been far harder won than the title of 2018-19, when City and Liverpool each cantered to win after win over the final two months of the season. This has been a run-in with at least a few twists and turns, with the possibility of one more to come.
The pivotal moment, in the end, came after 65 minutes with the score at 2-1 as Antonio, inadvertently sent clean through by Fernandinho, pulled his chip over Ederson just wide. Had that gone in – or had Bowen not slightly selfishly dragged an effort into the side-netting when he might have squared it a minute earlier – this might still have been a costly afternoon for City. As it was, West Ham followed the path of so many David Moyes sides before them by dropping deeper and deeper, inviting pressure and, inevitably, conceding.
With the scores level, West Ham immediately stepped out and City began to look threatened again. City had chances to win it and they were, of course, the better side, as xG has had them in every single game this season, but in the minutes after the penalty, as they chased a winner that would in effect have secured the league title, they were oddly lacking in imagination.
Rodri was thrown up front, a glimpse of what a big No 9 might look like in a City side next season, an uncomfortable temporary addition to the lineage that runs from Niall Quinn to Erling Haaland, and crosses slung into the box – although the only player who actually got on the end of one of them was Vladimir Coufal, who scored the equaliser with a diving header into his own net.
After two facile wins, this was all a little unconvincing from City. But that’s how it should be. That’s what title races are supposed to be about, the contenders choking on their anxieties as laid-back opponents with little to play for operate, for worse and sometimes for better, to a different set of priorities.
