There was one moment, coming in the 78th minute of West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat by Premier League challengers Manchester City, which summed up their afternoon. The culprit? Lucas Paqueta.
Now, the mercurial Brazilian was hardly the worst Hammers performer on an afternoon of very few positives at the Etihad Stadium.
Max Kilman was calamitous as ever at centre-back – when you are missing Konstantinos Mavropanos, that’s when you know it’s bad – Ollie Scarles was tortured by Rayan Cherki, and the few chances West Ham United did create were squandered by Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville.
Lucas Paqueta actually made the opening spurned by the latter. A clever pass on an angle into the path of an onrushing Summerville, who succeeded only in clattering his shot of the sizeable conk of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
And that was as close as Paqueta came, really, to leaving his mark on the occasion.
Three and easy for Man City 🙁
Give us your immediate reaction following West Ham's latest defeat
Manchester City nearly signed West Ham’s number ten for an eye-watering £80 million back in 2023, lest we forget, only for that spot-fixing charge to ki-bosh those negotiations.
Now, we don’t want to put words into Don Hutchison’s mouth. But one imagines that the former Upton Park stalwart is not expecting Pep Guardiola to come calling again any time soon.
Don Hutchison frustrated by Lucas Paqueta as Manchester City ease past West Ham United
Hutchison pulled no punches during Premier One Hub’s live coverage.
The man who enjoyed two spells in claret and blue from 1994 to 2005 was left thoroughly underwhelmed by a West Ham side who meekly rolled over and let Erling Haaland walk all over them with his monster feet.
He was not the only one. The West Ham faithful had to rely on gallows humour on an afternoon when their side mustered a measly three shots on target and had only 34 per cent of the possession.
On one of the very few chances presented to them, Paqueta floated an underwhelming 78th minute free-kick into the grateful arms of Donnarumma.
“Very, very tame,” Hutchison said. “Sums up West Ham today.”
Paqueta scored in four successive matches for club and country back in September. The first time he had ever achieved such a feat.
Flash forward to December, though, and he has scored only twice in his last 16 appearances for West Ham and Brazil.
“West Ham have had chances in the second half, and you have to take those opportunities when you come to Man City,” former Everton midfielder Leon Osman told BBC Sport. “They have had decent chances but they just have not taken them.
“West Ham have lacked ruthlessness. They can create opportunities but they have not been clinical today. [And even if they did], you cannot outscore defensive frailties. Nuno wants to build this team to be better defensively but even their attacking chances have not gone their way today.
“Man City are back in this title race and they did not need to be anywhere near their best. For West Ham? Trouble. Problems. They need to think about this game if they want to stay in the Premier League.”
❓What did YOU make of Lucas Paqueta’s Man City performance?
Pep Guardiola won't be paying £80m for him these days…
Returning Kyle Walker-Peters reflects on 3-0 Etihad defeat
Kyle Walker-Peters, in for Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right-back, felt that Man City’s firepower was simply too much to deal with. Though, after Leeds and Fulham scored six goals past Pep Guardiola’s side in successive matches recently, the Hammers will still travel back to London with a nagging sense of ‘what might have been?’.
“We know how good City are. They are at it at the moment,” Walker-Peters said. “We knew it would be tough here. We had a gameplan and tried to stick to it but it was tough.”
“We had a few chances, on another day they might go in. Just didn’t happen for us today.”
“I’m excited [to play] I want to help the team. Even when I’m not playing I’m trying to help the team. Excited to play but we need to turn things around quickly.
“It’s important to keep belief. There will be tough moments. We have to stick together and keep at it.”
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