West Ham 1-0 Swansea: Diafra Sakho nets dramatic late winner for Hammers to light up dour game and ease pressure on Slaven Bilic

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They booed at half-time, they booed again at the restart and they booed louder still when Slaven Bilic made a pair of substitutions near the end. Given what followed, the West Ham manager might have felt entitled to shout a little something back at the final whistle.

Instead, he clapped them. And more than that, he told them they were ‘right to boo – we deserved it’.

When it was put to him that it was the kind of booing that can get a struggling manager the sack, the Croatian simply shrugged. He is surely aware there is a chunk of the West Ham support that would welcome a change, but he saw no point in gloating about the obvious, which is that his substitutions - the ones that been had been jeered - won this match.  

Diafra Sakho netted a late winner for West Ham and was mobbed by his team-mates after scoring in stoppage time

Arthur Masuaku found Sakho unmarked in the box and the forward finished with aplomb, striking the ball high into the net

West Ham battled hard throughout the game but Swansea will feel hard done by to have come away with nothing 

Pablo Zabaleta was a picture of absolute joy mixed with relief following Sakho's decisive intervention

MATCH FACTS, LIVE TABLE AND MATCHZONE

West Ham (4-2-3-1): 

Hart 6.5; Zabaleta 6.5, Fonte 6.5, Reid 6.5, Cresswell 6; Kouyate 6, Noble 6 (Lanzini 62, 6); Antonio 6.5, Chicharito 5 (Sakho 78), Ayew 6 (Masuaku 78); Carroll 6.5

Subs not used: Adrian, Byram, Ogbonna, Rice

Booked: Kouyate, Carroll, Sakho

Swansea (4-1-3-2): 

Fabianksi 6.5; Naughton 6, Fernandez 7, Mawson 6.5, Olsson 6.5 (Clucas 87); Britton 6 (Roque Mesa 69); Sanches 6.5, Ayew 6.5, Carroll 7; Abraham 5, Bony 5 (Fer 46)

Subs not used: Nordfeldt, van der Hoorn, Rangel, Narsingh

Booked: Sanches, Britton

Ref: Roger East

MOM: Arthur Masuaku

Att: 56,922

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Kyle Naughton was busy up and down the right flank for Swansea. For more from our brilliant Matchzone, click here

 

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It was Arthur Masuaku and Diafra Sakho that rescued the situation and an otherwise turgid match, having come on for Andre Ayew and Javier Hernandez with 12 minutes to go and then linked up for the winner at the death. Masuaku did the hard work down the left and Sakho buried the cross, quite possibly saving Bilic’s job in the process.

‘I would rather make a decision and risk booing than do nothing - that is not what a manager should do,’ he said.

But he knows the uncertainty won’t go away, that once the drumming starts it rarely stops.

‘Of course the speculation is not very pleasant but all I can try to do is win games and we done it today,’ he said. ‘It was not in a great style but the way we approached the game was as a must-win, a six-pointer.’

With it, West Ham jumped out of the bottom three and up to 15th and Swansea took their place. The latter deserved a draw, but they also deserved the rollicking they got from Paul Clement, which centred on their utter failure to create chances. It is best shown by the fact they have had only 11 shots on goal all season – the worst tally in the Premier League.  

Swansea enjoyed the majority of possession and there was very little between the two sides over the course of the game

Renato Sanches mocks Winston Reid but the Hammers defender refuses to react or rise to the provocation

Selling Gylfi Sigurdsson has left them without a meaningful way of getting into the opposition area and this was a game when the weakness was glaringly obvious. Indeed, only Wilfried Bony and Martin Olsson went close, and both shots were from outside the area.

In balance, Clement has built Swansea’s best defence for several seasons, but a toothless attack will give them terrible problems if it persists.

Clement was furious, saying: ‘It is a hard feeling to know we are going away with nothing. The least we deserved was a draw though I can’t say we deserved to win - we didn’t create enough.

‘We have to create more chances and score more goals. It is really frustrating. We would get into the last third and then do a hopeless ball into the box. The front players have to do better. I am concerned.’

The first half was dull, dreadfully so. And yet both managers had come in with the best of intentions, with each making attacking changes to their line-ups.

For Bilic that meant brining in Andy Carroll and Ayew in for Angelo Ogbonna and Marko Arnautovic, who was ill. The system switched from three at the back in the defeat against Tottenham to a 4-2-3-1 that quickly morphed into an outright 4-4-2 with Carroll and Javier Hernandez up front.  

Martin Olsson holds off a challenge from Javier Hernandez as the West Ham forward attempts to steal possession 

Michail Antonio manages to get his pass away under pressure from Swansea midfielder Leon Britton

Slaven Bilic looked pensive on the sidelines as the away side started brightly and dominated the ball early on 

Jordan Ayew shows a clean pair of heels to Cheikhou Kouyate who tried desperately to keep up with the sharp forward

Wilfried Bony lunges in on Pablo Zabaleta as the former Manchester City duo compete for the ball 

In Swansea’s case, Clement gave Leon Britton his first start since the opening day of the season, having received a four-page letter from one supporter this week that stated over and again: ‘Play Leon Britton.’ He also recalled Renato Sanches and Tammy Abraham, with Sam Clucas, Leroy Fer and Mike van der Hoorn dropping out.

The two-man frontline of Abraham and Wilfried Bony was a departure from Clement’ s style in the early skirmishes of this season and glaringly signified the vulnerabilities he, and everyone else, has detected in this West Ham side. But those weaknesses only matter if a side can capitalise and Swansea have repeatedly shown this season that they lack the wit to pull it off.

That might change as Renato Sanches adapts – in this game he appeared to be getting sharper, more confident and less wasteful – but for now, working the ball upfield is a ponderous process for the whole collective.

The relief for Swansea is that West Ham were no better. They had a chance inside five minutes when Michail Antonio’s bouncing volley was pushed away by Lukasz Fabianski and then nothing else for half an hour, until Ayew flicked a header of zero venom at goal. Fabianski went to ground to save but there was no threat. 

West Ham's captain Mark Noble does his best to keep hold of possession as Ayew sticks a leg through in the tackle 

Kyle Naughton demonstrates some masterful control on his chest as Javier Hernandez closes him down 

The West Ham rearguard mark up from a set-piece which is successfully cleared by the hosts at London Stadium

Andy Carroll wrestles with Britton and uses his huge frame to get the better of Swansea's captain in their duel

Noble scans the pitch and looks for an available option as Bilic's team struggled to find creative outlets 

The Croatian manager will be a relieved man as the victory lifts his side up into 15th

In between, Joe Hart dived a little theatrically to block Wilfried Bony and Swansea’s only notable chance of the first 45 minutes.

By the close of the half, Swansea had controlled possession and done nothing with it, while West Ham were booed off by their own fans.

Clement started the second half by hauling off Bony for Leroy Fer and Bilic’s roll of the dice was to swap Mark Noble for Manuel Lanzini on 62 minutes, giving the Argentine his first appearance for a month after a knee injury. It was a play by the manager for more creativity, which was generally well received, and then he was booed furiously after taking off the ineffective Hernandez for Diafra Sakho and bringing on Arthur Masuaku for Ayew.

At times like these, booing can influence owners, but Masuaku quickly indicated his threat with a cross that Carroll flicked on to the bar. He then he pulled out an even better cross for the winner, scored from close range by Sakho at the far post.

Those that were booing suddenly started singing about bubbles, until the stadium announcer said Carroll was the man of the match. Then they started booing again.

Maybe Bilic was right not to think too hard about it.  

The Hammers were jubilant at full-time and will be full of confidence ahead of their next game against Burnley