Moyes points to ‘mitigating circumstances’ after admitting West Ham ‘weren’t at it’ against Brentford
David Moyes had no complaints about the result after West Ham United were brought back down to earth with a 2-0 defeat to Brentford.
It has been a memorable season for West Ham, who most recently were in Europa League quarter-final action against Lyon. However, if they are to qualify for Europe again next season, they cannot afford many slip-ups in the Premier League.
One came on Sunday, though, when Brentford beat them 2-0. Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney scored for the hosts in the second half.
West Ham, on the other hand, only managed one shot on target across the whole 90 minutes. As a result, they are in sixth place, six points off the top four.
Breaking into Champions League territory now seems a stretch, but they will be hoping to get into the Europa League again. To do so, they must stay where they are and not slip into seventh, where Manchester United are currently level on points with them.
However, Man Utd have a game in hand, so West Ham could end up dropping into the Europa Conference League spot. They will hope to show that the Brentford defeat was just a blip and finish the season more strongly.
But Moyes believes the result was what they deserved for a below-standard performance. They may have been tired after Thursday’s draw with Lyon and it caught up with them on this occasion.
Moyes told Match of the Day: “No I don’t have any complaints. We weren’t at it from the start.
“There are mitigating circumstances; we had a tough game on Thursday and the Thursday-Sunday schedule is not ideal. The most part has been good but today felt like one too many.”
Moyes can’t remember worthy West Ham attacks
He continued: “Goals change the result. Going in 0-0 at half time it was a low-level game. We gave them a goal after two minutes. We gave them a lift up and it dented us and they went on to win today.
“Kurt Zouma twisted his ankle so we have to wait to see how he is.
“I said to the lads I don’t remember giving anything of quality for their goalkeeper to do. That is not like us but it wasn’t to be today.
“It was a big opportunity today for us to get three points. We had to come here to get a result but Premier League games are hard. If anything, this weekend showed it.”
West Ham are next in action on Thursday for the second leg of their Europa League clash with Lyon.
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