Swansea 1-4 West Ham

Swansea 1-4 West Ham

Home team scorers
Fernando Llorente 89

Away team scorers
Andre Ayew 13
Winston Reid 50
Michail Antonio 78
Andy Carroll 90

It was an afternoon when the mood turned ugly in South Wales as Swansea City supporters called for Bob Bradley to be sacked and vented their anger at the members of the board who sold their shares in the summer. “We want Bradley out” and “You greedy bastards get out of our club” were among the chants that reverberated around the stadium during another chastening defeat for a team that looks resigned to relegation.

All the indications before the game were that Bradley’s position is not under any threat, yet the Swansea fans have cast their own judgement on a man who was appointed less than three months ago and appears powerless to arrest the decline. “You don’t know what you’re doing” was another of the songs directed at the American, who has now presided over seven defeats in 11 matches and seen his team concede 29 goals in the process.

West Ham became the latest club to run riot against Swansea. André Ayew, with his first goal for West Ham since joining them in a £20.5m move from Swansea in the summer, put the visitors ahead in the 13th minute. Winston Reid, exposing familiar defensive frailties on set pieces, added the second early in the second half and at that point the frustration in the stands started to boil over.

Michail Antonio added a third for West Ham and although Fernando Llorente pulled a goal back for Swansea late on, Slaven Bilic’s side were not finished for the day. Andy Carroll, volleying home at the far post, twisted the knife with a fourth for West Ham, who have climbed well clear of the relegation zone on the back of three straight victories in the space of 12 days.

West Ham actually opened the scoring against the run of play and yet again it was down to some calamitous Swansea defending. With no pressure on the ball, Mark Noble delivered a deep diagonal centre towards the far post, where Carroll outjumped Angel Rangel to nod back across goal. When Cheikhou Kouyaté tried and failed to touch home, Lukasz Fabianski seemed to have the situation under control but the sprawling Swansea goalkeeper carelessly nudged the ball into the path of Ayew, who had the simple task of tapping over the line.

The exasperation among the home supporters was tangible. It was such a woeful goal to concede, predictable in the sense that Carroll was involved, and came only two minutes after Borja Bastón had squandered a decent chance at the other end. Jack Cork created that opportunity with a sinuous run and Borja really ought to have done better with the left-footed shot that he miscued wide. Gylfi Sigurdsson, who was stood in a better position and totally unmarked, was furious that Borja opted to go it alone rather than pass.

Sigurdsson, however, wasted a presentable opening of his own later on. In what was the home team’s best move in a first half when they dominated possession but rarely looked like scoring, Jay Fulton set Rangel free on the Swansea right and the Spaniard cut the ball back for Sigurdsson, who was little more than 12 yards out. Normally so deadly in front of goal, Sigurdsson sliced his left-footed shot so badly that it went out for a throw in. The Icelander fared much better from further out later in the half, when his 25-yard free-kick was clawed around the post by Darren Randolph.

West Ham’s threat was sporadic at that stage and largely confined to the counter-attack – Antonio came close to adding a second in one of those breakaways when the winger curled a shot just beyond the top corner two minutes before break. Bradley responded at half-time by making two changes, yet in the blink of an eye West had doubled their lead. Reid got away from Alfie Mawson to meet Dimitri Payet’s corner with a header from inside the six-yard box that beat Fabianski at his near post.

Swansea rallied for a period. Cork’s low drive was pawed behind by Randolph, who also denied Wayne Routledge and later tipped a Sigurdsson header over the bar, yet there was never any real prospect of a Swansea fightback and certainly not after Antonio stabbed in Havard Nordtveit’s wayward shot to make it 3-0. Llorente did pull a goal back for Swansea when he converted Dyer’s cross but West Ham re-established their three-goal lead seconds later through Carroll. Swansea look doomed.

Guardian