West Ham United have moved out of the Premier League’s relegation zone with a 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
All the goals came in the second-half, starting with three-minute brace from Danny Ings with less than 20 minutes to go, with Declan Rice and Michail Antonio later netting to seal the Hammers’ biggest win of the season in all competitions.
As West Ham moved two points clear of the bottom three, here are the major talking points from the London Stadium.
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Back out of the bottom three
Just like before the 2-0 win over Everton four weeks ago, there felt like a serious pressure for West Ham to pick up three points ahead of kick-off.
With Moyes making four changes from the side that lost 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur last time out, West Ham switched to a 4-3-3 formation, having played with a 3-4-3 in recent weeks that had led to an improved run of form prior to their London derby defeat.
Among the four changes from the loss at Tottenham saw striker Ings win a full debut up front in place of Michail Antonio, with Ben Johnson, Lucas Paqueta and Said Benrahma all coming into the starting side.
West Ham threatened early on with several waves of attack, although they were unable to make any of their chances count. Paqueta saw a deflected shot hit the post before Ings, who had looked lively early on, squandered a golden chance with a header from close range off the end of a Vladimir Coufal cross, miss-timing it completely after Tomas Soucek’s jump appeared to distract him.
Nottingham Forest were only able to force Hammers goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski into action twice before the break, tipping over a Felipe header from a free-kick before matching a tame Morgan Gibbs-White shot from distance.
West Ham started the second half with some less control than they had in much of the first half after Soucek headed wide from a Aaron Cresswell corner. Cresswell, who had replaced the injured Coufal at the break, was sloppy in possession and caught too far up the pitch on a couple of occasions, with Rice and Aguerd forced to track back and mop up.
After a spell of concern, West Ham started to pick up again, with Jarrod Bowen’s right-footed shot across goal hitting the post before Lucas Paqueta’s effort from outside of the penalty area seconds later only narrowly going over the crossbar. West Ham’s good luck charm came via the unusual form of back-up stopper Alphonse Areola, who replaced Fabianski midway through the second half after the Polish keeper was injured.
A minute after Areola’s introduction, West Ham got their opening goal. Ings, who started the move, took the ball from just inside Forest’s half and drove at goal before spreading a pass out to Bowen on the right. Bowen charged down his side, cut it back to Ings, who turned it in with an instinctive finish, despite the ball being behind him when he shot. The goal was eventually given after a VAR check for offside.
Ings then doubled his West Ham tally three minutes later with a similarly instinctive finish. Benrahma drove towards the byline and cut the ball back to the former Villa man, who got his knee to the ball to bundle it in - the perfect way to get the home fans on your side.
The game had already been settled after Ings’ second, but West Ham were far from finished. Rice made it 3-0 from the edge of the area after being teed up from outside of the penalty area, a glorious finish and his first home goal of the season in all competitions.
With less than ten minutes to go, Moyes bought off Ings, Benrahma and Paqueta, with two of the three replacements combining to make it 4-0. Cresswell’s pass found the run of Pablo Fornals, who cleverly got away from Brennan Johnson before clipping a cross into the back post for Antonio to meet with a bullet header from close range.
Four goals in 15 minutes gave West Ham their biggest win of the season, their first four-goal haul of the campaign and their since beaten Norwich City by the same score line last May. The result moved West Ham up to 16th and two points clear of the bottom three, with Everton, Southampton and Bournemouth all suffering defeats on Saturday.
The £12million signing already paying off
Despite having Antonio already at the club and West Ham spending £30.5million to sign Gianluca Scamacca in August, goals have been few and far between for much of this season.
The woes up front led to West Ham spending £12million (rising to £15million after add-ons) on Ings from Villa last month, who had to wait patiently for a full debut.
A knee injury sustained in his first game against Everton last month prolonged his wait for a first start, making four substitute appearances before Moyes finally turned to the 30-year-old for the visit of Forest to east London.
Despite first half frustrations, including a header where he normally would have done better with, Ings took his chance with aplomb in the second half, starting and finishing the move that got West Ham into the scoring spirit.
Fans were still celebrating his opener by the time he doubled West Ham’s lead; it may not have been the cleanest of finishes, but one that showed his true striker’s instinct and why he already has eight Premier League goals this season, twice as many as any other Hammers player.
His goals could prove to be the difference in West Ham’s battle for survival, and with a double on his first start, that £12million transfer fee is already proving to be a very shrewd investment for the club.
A captain’s goal
Fresh for the game with a new haircut, Rice added a rare goal for the Hammers in a game where the players needed to step and prove what they can still achieve this season.
In what was his first goal at the London Stadium since a Europa League win over Rapid Vienna in September 2021, just like his other goal this season at Southampton, he cut inside on his right foot after a Benrahma pass and curled a beautiful shot into the top corner, a finish too good for three-time Champions League winner Keylor Navas to keep out.
Goals from midfield have not been all that common this season, with the trio of Rice, Tomas Soucek and Paqueta notching just six between them all season. However, three of those have come since the start of the new year, showing a sign that the midfield are now beginning to chip in with their fair share.
Although Ings’ arrival has seemed to add a scoring boost on its first full showing, over the course the final 14 league games, Rice is going to need chip in with a few more goals, with West Ham’s team as a whole low on numbers for the campaign.
In what could well be the captain’s final season at the London Stadium, every goal he scores will feel like a cherished moment and his clean finish was something that West Ham fans can savour, even more so considering it is 18 months since his last home goal.
From one captain to the next?
If Rice does leave at the end of the season, there will be a big debate over who should succeed him as club captain, with some fans suggesting that centre-back Nayef Aguerd is already proving himself to be of the right material.
A moment in the second half proved exactly why he has been shown so much appreciation for West Ham after just eight Premier League appearances as Fabianski was forced off injured.
As Fabianski rushed out of his goal to dive onto and smother a loose ball, Felipe caught Fabianski in the side of the face, leading to the Polish stopper being forced off with a swollen eye and concerns over an eye socket injury.
While Felipe ran away from an injured and grounded Fabianski, Aguerd, normally a calm character, chased after Felipe to show his frustrations at the incident, with the Moroccan being the nearest West Ham player to it.
It showed a player willing to stick up for his teammates and fight for the cause and with a side low on leaders and potentially looking for a future captain in a number of months, that moment alone summed up why Aguerd is already fan’s favourite.
Gianluca Scamacca’s role
While Ings made the most of his first start and Antonio scored off the bench, it shows that West Ham’s forward players are starting to rediscover where the back of the net is.
However, while West Ham were scoring four in the space of 15 minutes, a player was an unused substitute for a second straight match was Italian striker Gianluca Scamacca, who missed four matches with a knee injury prior to returning to the bench at Tottenham.
The Italian had been ahead of Antonio in the pecking order for most of the season to date, but the signing of Ings showed that West Ham needed more than what their current duo were offering.
Ings cannot play against Manchester United on Wednesday night in the FA Cup, opening the door up for Scamacca to potentially get some minutes at Old Trafford, but on a personal note, seeing West Ham record their biggest victory of the season while he was an unused substitute will have hardly done his confidence a world of good.
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