David Moyes pulled no punches in his assessment of West Ham United’s 3-2 Boxing Day defeat by Southampton.
The Hammers fell to a fourth defeat in seven Premier League matches with a strangely lacklustre display on a gloomy afternoon in east London, falling behind and getting back on level terms twice before losing to a set-piece goal.
The Irons went behind inside eight minutes to Mohammed Elyounoussi’s low shot and could not muster a response before the break. Michail Antonio was introduced at half-time and took less than four minutes to score his first goal in nine Premier League matches when he nodded in from close-range.
However, Southampton went back in front through James Ward-Prowse after Kevin Friend awarded a controversial penalty after viewing the pitchside screen on VAR Craig Pawson’s recommendation, penalising Craig Dawson for a foul on Armando Broja when the initial contact appeared yards outside the penalty area.
West Ham levelled for a second time when Saïd Benrahma swept in Jarrod Bowen’s right-wing cross within three minutes, only for Ward-Prowse’s free-kick to be headed in by Jan Bednarek with 20 minutes to play and ultimately earn Southampton all three points.
Speaking to West Ham TV, Moyes had this to say...
It was rubbish, rubbish from the start - not from start to finish because we were better in the second half, but we were flat in the opening part of the game, for what reason I have no idea but we were.
We didn't really get anything out of it, the amount of poor decisions and passes we made, we didn't press well, so lots of things didn't go as well as we'd have liked.
I thought that once we got back level there would really only be one winner if we kept doing the right things.
I thought for five minutes after our goals we did keep doing the right things, but then we gave away a horrendous second goal.
Then we got back in it again and I was thinking there were still over 20 minutes and we'd have enough time to get a winner, then we go and give them another goal from a free-kick, so it was not a good day for us.
We've got to watch that we don't just focus on Mick getting a goal - it's the whole team winning which is most important rather than any individual scoring a goal.
I don't really care who scores the goals as long as the team wins and we didn't win today.
[For their penalty], I think the first contact [from Craig Dawson on Armando Broja] was outside the box, and by the second contact their player was already falling over.
We've seen quite a few VAR decisions and the referee was sent to look at the screen and he chose to give the penalty.
I think the angle the referee gets to see is unfair and he doesn't get to see all the action, so I think that's not a particularly good thing by VAR, but that's what they wanted to show.
We missed Dec for five games at the end of season but we still picked up points and this is only one game, so we'll try to do that again.
I'm not sure it's correct [that we play Watford on Tuesday and they have not played since 10 December], but who are we going to ask or who are we going to complain to?
There is nothing we can do, so we'll take it and try and get the players prepared as best we can.
The people who are running the competition will know if they think they're doing the right thing or not.
I think everybody in the stadium was a bit flat today. There were less people for obvious reasons because of the COVID.
I think that had a little bit of an effect on the players coming out to a lot of empty seats today, but hopefully we get everybody back when this COVID is all over.