Swansea leap out of the relegation zone by thrashing feeble West Ham
Stuart James at the Liberty Stadium
Date Published Sat 3 Mar 2018 17.17 GMT

By the end it had turned into an ordeal for just about everyone associated with West Ham United as André Ayew, the player they sold to Swansea City in January, inspired Carlos Carvalhal’s team to an emphatic victory that lifts the Welsh club up five places in the table and above their beleaguered opponents.

David Moyes had given the impression the day before the game that he was not overly keen on making the journey to south Wales because of the weather and it looked as though his West Ham players felt the same way. West Ham were awful, totally outplayed in the first half in particular and unable to come to terms with the intensity of Swansea’s approach.

André Ayew, almost inevitability, revelled in the occasion. The £18m club-record signing was involved in three of Swansea’s four goals and left the field to a standing ovation when he was withdrawn 12 minutes from time. Ki Sung-yueng, who was outstanding in the centre of midfield, opened the scoring, Mike van der Hoorn added the second and Andy King marked his first Swansea start since joining on loan from Leicester with the third. André Ayew then won the penalty that led to Jordan, his brother, scoring the fourth.

Although Michail Antonio pulled a goal back for the visitors 11 minutes from time, that was little consolation for Moyes on a hugely disappointing afternoon for the West Ham manager. This was a second successive 4-1 defeat and leaves his side only three points above the relegation zone. To compound a miserable afternoon for the club, Winston Reid left the pitch on a stretcher with a potentially serious knee injury and David Gold, the club’s co-owner, was confronted by an angry supporter as he tried to leave the Liberty Stadium.

“A day of embarrassment,” said Moyes. “It was the worst performance since I’ve been at West Ham. We just never really looked at any time as if we were in control. From a throw-in we lost the first goal – one that I think we should save. We conceded two goals from corner kicks and one from a penalty kick, so from my point of view they were all avoidable. A poor performance and poor all round.”

Carvalhal, in contrast, was in buoyant mood on the back of a seventh consecutive home victory. Referencing the need for Swansea to “dance to the music that opponents put to us‚” the Swansea manager described his team’s performance as “rock and roll”‚ and praised the “collective” rather than singling out André Ayew.

“It looked like we played with 11 brothers on the pitch instead of two,” Carvalhal said.

Swansea got off to a perfect start and, in truth, never looked back. They were ahead within nine minutes after Ki, picking up possession from André Ayew, drilled a low left-footed shot from 22 yards beyond Adrián and into the corner. Although the shot was well-placed, it carried little power and the West Ham goalkeeper should arguably have done better.

Carvalhal’s side were denied a second when Declan Rice cleared Federico Fernández’s shot off the line but it was only a temporary reprieve as Swansea continued to pour forward. Adrián repelled André Ayew’s left-footed shot but was powerless to prevent Van der Hoorn from heading in Ki’s corner after Rice allowed the Dutchman to get away from him.

Moyes replaced Patrice Evra with Michail Antonio at the start of the second half to try to give West Ham more of an attacking threat, yet it was Swansea who struck again. André Ayew met Sam Clucas’s corner with a twisting header, forcing Adrián into an instinctive save that ended with the ball dropping invitingly for King to stab home. Jordan Ayew’s penalty, after Cheikhou Kouyaté clumsily brought down André Ayew, embellished the scoreline before Antonio drilled a low shot past Lukasz Fabianski late on.