West Ham United earned their first Premier League away victory since August on Saturday afternoon, beating Fulham 1-0.
Harrison Reed’s first-half own goal proved to be the deciding factor at Craven Cottage as three points for David Moyes' men saw them climb up to 13th in the table, three points clear of the relegation zone with just nine games remaining.
As West Ham made Fulham the first team they have beaten both home and away this season in the Premier League, here are five of the major talking points.
READ MORE : Every word David Moyes said on West Ham's Fulham win, chants, Lucas Paqueta and Angelo Ogbonna
Derby day delight
West Ham arrived at Craven Cottage off their back of their heaviest home league defeat in over three and a half years and with the joint-lowest league points tally away from home this season alongside Nottingham Forest
Not since August’s win over Aston Villa had West Ham left an away Premier League game with three points and tasked with attempting to return to winning ways in a third game in six days, Moyes made five changes, a bold selection that ultimately, paid off.
Leading the attacking line for the first time together were Danny Ings and Michail Antonio in a 4-4-2 formation and early on, crosses into the box with two men in it looked to be the plan of attack for the Hammers.
Although Fulham dominated possession after an early West Ham flurry, it was the Hammers who made the most of their chances, although they needed some fortune.
West Ham broke down the right after Declan Rice’s sprayed pass out right to Vladimir Coufal, who beat Antonee Robinson before seeing his cross half cleared by Fulham skipper Tim Ream. Ream’s intervention went only as far as Jarrod Bowen, who burst to the byline and cut the ball back into the centre of the box, with the sliding Reed adding the all-important touch.
Fulham manager Marco Silva felt that the goal should not have stood as the ball hit Coufal's hands in the build-up to his cleared cross, although the manager did not get his wish.
Fulham continued to take the game to West Ham but were restricted to chances from distance only, Andreas Pereira and Robinson saw good efforts blocked or fly wide, but neither ever looked like finding the target, with Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma and Coufal leading the defensive solidarity and the steeliness needed to keep out at Fulham side who until recently, had strong claims of finishing in qualification for Europe.
The second half was much of the same: very little in terms of chances. West Ham switched to 4-2-3-1 after an hour as Flynn Downes and Said Benrahma replaced Ings and Pablo Fornals, minutes after Ings went clear on goal only to see his chipped effort straight at Leno.
Fulham’s desperation to get forward and equalise proved to be their downfall, leaving space for West Ham to counter them late on, with Benrahma hitting a shot from range narrowly wide.
Fulham did go close twice late on, forcing Lukas Fabianski into the only two proper saves he had to make all match in redemption for his errors against Newcastle United.
First, he rushed out and made the most of a slightly heavy Pereira touch to palm the ball out of sight before he could shoot, doing what he didn’t do in a one vs one situation against Joelinton less than 72 hours earlier, before being in the right spot to keep out a Tosin Adarabioyo header from a corner, although West Ham could have made things easier for themselves.
Twice late on, they had big chances from the counters after Zouma's header from a corner found the target. First, Bowen's sweeping effort from Benrahma's pass led to a Leno stop before Maxwel Cornet, thrown on in the 90th minute, could and certainly should have opened his West Ham account.
Pouncing on a bad Ream clearance, Cornet was clean through on goal and could only shoot straight at Leno. Thankfully, Fulham did not make West Ham pay for it.
They had chances to score more, but the win was all about defensive resolve in what was West Ham’s second 1-0 win in the Premier League in less than a week. At this time of the season, points trump playing style, especially in a nine-team fight for survival.
£72million gamble pays off
For the game, Moyes opted to ring the changes to his side, making five from the defeat to the Magpies due to a combination of wanting a reaction from that loss and managing the workload of three league games in six days.
While £35.6million signing Lucas Paqueta was missing due to a knock, the other four players Moyes dropped cost the club a total of £72million (on initial fees), three of which were signed in the summer.
Winger Benrahma (£20million), centre-back Nayef Aguerd (£30.million), left-back Emerson (£12million) and versatile defender Thilo Kehrer (£10.1million) all lost their places, but the move worked.
Although Moyes said it was more to do with rotation, what he bought into the team in Coufal, Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Pablo Fornals and Ings was experience, grit, leadership and a battling mentality that all teams crave when in an unwanted relegation battle.
The changes also saw none of the £160million on eight summer signings start the game, with six making the bench and Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca sidelined.
Positives can certainly be taken from the players who came in and stepped up, showing the size and quality of West Ham’s squad, but it is perhaps a damning indication of how West Ham’s summer spending spending spree has so far largely been unable to match the transfer spend on them.
Of course the signings are and were needed, but the Fulham showed that a blast from the past is also okay.
Fans chants proved wrong
Perhaps the biggest talking point of the game came after an hour when Moyes made a double substitution.
At first, Benrahma replaced Fornals on the left wing, a decision which made sense. Fornals had done well defensively and ended the game with more completed tackles than any other West Ham player. But looking after the ball had not been his forte and he often lost the ball or lacked the attacking quality needed to get past Fulham.
The second switch angered fans as Ings, who did very little barring a chance saved by Leno shortly before coming off, was replaced by Downes, with Moyes adding an extra midfielder into the game.
That led to chants of "you don’t know what you’re doing" from the away fans, despite West Ham winning 1-0 at the time and keeping the game at that scoreline until its conclusion.
It could have been seen as a negative switch, only leading 1-0 and spending much of the game defending, but if anything, while West Ham had less of the ball, they created better chances late on with those changes.
In sweeping counter attacks late on, Benrahma, Bowen and Cornet all had big chances to score, with extra man in midfield allowing West Ham to make more purpose with their turnovers
At full-time, there was a Moyes out banner and despite the chants, West Ham got the job done, showing Moyes did know what he was doing, contrary to those who chanted otherwise.
Speaking out on the chants, Moyes replied briefly: "I can’t really answer that, can I? They can do that if they choose to do so."
Explaining the change, he added: "I actually thought [Joao] Palhinha was getting too much into the game at the time and felt we needed to deal with it differently at that time.
"We were also winning 1-0 and we’d also brought on a different attacking player in Said Benrahma for Pablo Fornals.
"We had swapped a real attacker in Danny for Said and swapped a midfield player for Pablo Fornals, so I actually didn’t think it was [too different], it is just the perception and how people see it."
The seal of approval
Shortly after West Ham’s players went over to the travelling away fans, manager Moyes made his venture back down the tunnel before doing his post-match team talk and media duties.
Directly above the tunnel at Craven Cottage was a small patioed director’s box, where Hammers vice-chairman Karren Brady was among those watching on.
After the game, Moyes looked up where Brady was sitting and produced a smile, knowing exactly how important three points in west London were.
As Moyes smiled, Brady was seen shaking her fists in celebration, with Moyes getting a victory in yet another 'must-not-lose' match.
Moyes has constantly been backed by the club’s hierarchy this season and despite the results, has had the continued support of David Sullivan, Brady and the rest of the board.
This moment between Moyes and Brady showed exactly the relationship Moyes has with those above him
Turning to experience
With the changes made, West Ham’s starting goalkeeper and back four had a combined age of 162, averaging at over 32 years of age.
Goalkeeper Fabianski could perhaps have counted himself fortunate to kept his place after mistakes against Newcastle and with little in it between him and Alphonse Areola, but the 37-year-old put in an important performance against the Cottagers.
At the back, the quartet of Coufal (30), Zouma (28), Ogbonna (34) and Cresswell (33) made 39 of the Hammers’ 61 clearances between them, 25 of those were coming from Moyes’ resolute centre-back pair.
Having averaged a clearance less than every two minutes into the match showed exactly the severity of the defensive work required but ultimately, got the job done at Craven Cottage.
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