Steven Gerrard is under increasing pressure at Aston Villa after his team became the first in the Premier League to be beaten by West Ham this season.
The Hammers had lost all three of their opening matches against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton, but left Villa Park with a much-needed 1-0 win on Sunday afternoon. Pablo Fornals scored the game’s only goal, thanks to a healthy deflection off Ezri Konsa, to ensure Villa left the pitch to loud boos from the home fans.
Villa, who had a Konsa goal disallowed after Lucas Digne’s corner went out of play, have now lost three of their four Premier League matches, with their three points coming from a 2-1 win over Everton. What made the defeat all the more galling for Gerrard was that West Ham’s victory owed much to a tactical move by his opposite number, David Moyes.
The away side started with a back five, using Ben Johnson and new signing Emerson Palmieri as wing-backs. But they switched to their more customary 4-2-3-1 formation at half-time after Johnson went off injured and Moyes brought on Said Benrahma for debutant Palmieri.
Hammers captain Declan Rice believed the formation change was key to his side’s first league win of the season. "You always have to adapt in games and we can always flip between a four and five at the back,” he said.
"Five wasn't working in the first half but we switched it after half-time and got on the ball more to create more chances. We've missed so many chances this season and you start thinking 'when is this goal going to come?' but we could hear the fans erupt when we scored and there was relief at getting over the line.”
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Gerrard even acknowledged the difference Moyes’ alteration made to the momentum of the game.
“I was really happy first half,” he told Sky Sports. “I thought we were the better team and controlled a lot of the team. We never really created enough to trouble their keeper enough in the first half and the game was finely balanced at half-time.
“They made a couple of changes and we stopped keeping the ball and they hurt us on a couple of occasions – more than they did in the first half. The game was there, either for us to go and take it to them, or they were going to get us. And obviously the deflection for the goal is a big moment and it went against us.”
Gerrard has won just 12 of his 33 matches in charge of Villa and has lost 52 per cent of his games - a record only topped by Tim Sherwood (57 per cent) and Remi Garde (56 per cent) for the club. To make matters worse, they who now face two tough games, with a trip to high-flying Arsenal on Wednesday followed by a home game against defending champions Manchester City on Saturday.
“Yes, I’ve got confidence and belief in this group, but the key thing is they believe in each other,” Gerrard added. "They’re the ones who’ve got to act right now – we’ll help them and support them in any way we can, but it’s got to come from within as well.
"It was always going to be a big week, no matter what the result was. We’ve got two really tough games now, but as I say I’ve got belief and confidence that we can go and get results in those games.”
