A man-of-the-match performance from Craig Dawson led West Ham to a hard-fought 2-0 win over a wasteful Leeds at the London Stadium.
A diving Dawson header doubled West Ham’s lead in the first half and a goal-line clearance late in the second ensured the Irons secured the win needed to move up to fifth place in the Premier League, two points behind Chelsea with a game in hand.
Hammers captain Declan Rice admitted he wasn’t happy with the overall team performance, declaring that West Ham were “starting to learn to win ugly.”
He also had some explaining to do to boss David Moyes after handing over first-half penalty duty to Jesse Lingard.
The Manchester United loanee earned a spot kick on 21 minutes, but surprisingly stepped up ahead of Rice.
Lingard’s tame effort was parried by visiting keeper Illan Meslier, but he was sharp enough to react first and sweep home the rebound for his fourth goal in six games since his January move.
Asked why he had let Lingard have the ball, Rice told Sky Sports: “The gaffer’s just battered me.
“Me and Jess have been practising [penalties] in training together and he said to me: ‘Can I take it?’
“I’m not one to be selfish. There had been a bit of controversy with the last penalty, but I was confident enough in him to go up and take the ball.
“Obviously if he had missed that it would have been a backlash on me. But I just let Jess have the ball, do his own thing, not get in his brain and let him dispatch the ball away.”
Dawson stooped to head a second for West Ham from a corner seven minutes later.
The forceful centre-back has been a revelation in claret and blue after signing on a season-long loan from relegated Watford in October.
Since receiving a first team call-up for the 0-0 draw at Southampton on December 29, Dawson has not only helped Moyes’s men keep clean sheets in half of the 14 games he’s appeared in, he’s bagged four goals along the way.
It was a frustrating night for Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds, who had two goals disallowed in the first seven minutes after VAR’s intervention. Patrick Bamford also skied a couple of chances that on another day would have seen him add to his 13-goal season haul.
Down two goals at the break, Bielsa reacted by making two half-time substitutions and Leeds dominated the second period, amassing 15 shots on goal.
Although Dawson and the Hammers held firm, Rice admitted his team had ridden their luck.
“Speaking honestly I’m disappointed with the performance,” Rice said.
“Yeah we’ve won 2-0 and scored two goals. But if you compare the two performances where we played Man City last week and Leeds here tonight, at Man City we were brave, we took the ball and played well, had loads of chances, it was a real performance.
“Tonight Leeds caused us problems. First 10 [minutes] they came out really, really sharp and had two disallowed goals.
“As players on the pitch you know you have to wake yourselves up and get yourself into the game.
“Once the first goal came we settled down. We’re starting to learn to win ugly. We didn’t play the best but we’re grinding out the results and we’ve got a real solidity about us and long may that continue.”
Leeds full-back Stuart Dallas echoed Rice’s comments.
“I thought we started the game really well,” Dallas said. “This is football, sometimes you get the rub of the green and somet
“We started well then the game got away from us, they hit us on the counter.
“They got a penalty which was frustrating because it could have been avoided from where the ball had come from to start off with.
“Then a set-piece, which is disappointing. It has been a problem for us from earlier in the season and we worked hard to try and help in those situations but unfortunately tonight we conceded.
“We regrouped at half-time and made a few changes, came out in the second half and I thought we took control of the game.
“We had a chance early on and if that goes in, it’s a different game.
“It’s frustration more than anything that we didn’t get anything from the game because I think it was there for us.”
Did you know?
West Ham completed their first league double over Leeds since 1953-54 in the second tier, and their first in the top-flight since 1929-30.
Leeds have lost 13 of their last 14 games in London in all competitions (D1), losing all five in the capital in the Premier League this season.
West Ham have scored 15 goals via set-piece situations in the Premier League this season (excl. pens), more than any other side, while Leeds have shipped the most from set-pieces (excl. pens) – 14.
No side has faced more penalties in the Premier League this season than Leeds (8, level with Liverpool), with seven of them converted by the opposition.
West Ham United have won three consecutive home Premier League matches for the first time since March 2019, while manager David Moyes has registered three victories in a row at home in the competition for the first time since winning his last six as Everton manager in 2013.
Jesse Lingard has scored four goals in his six Premier League appearances for West Ham, as many as he managed in his final 38 top-flight games for Manchester United.
No Premier League defender has scored more goals in all competitions this season than West Ham’s Craig Dawson (4).
West Ham full-back Aaron Cresswell has registered seven Premier League assists this season (in 27 games), his joint-best return in a season in the competition (7 in 36 games in 2017-18).
Source: livescore
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