Leeds on brink of Premier League relegation after losing at West Ham

Hammers battle back after Sam Allardyce's men take early lead at London Stadium

Leeds United goalscorer Rodrigo after their 3-1 Premier League defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium on Sunday, May 21, 2023. PA

Leeds United lost 3-1 against West Ham United on Sunday to leave them on the brink of Premier League relegation.

Sam Allardyce had called the game at the London Stadium a “must-win” but, after taking an early lead through Rodrigo, the Yorkshire side were hit by goals from Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen and Manuel Lanzini.

They now sit in 18th place in the table on 31 points, one ahead of Leicester in 19th but the Foxes have a game in hand. Everton, who have also played 37 games are on 33 points in 17th spot.

Allardyce was brought in by Elland Road chief to perform a rescue mission with just four games to go but has collected just two points from his first three games after a 2-1 loss to Manchester City and a 2-2 draw with Newcastle United.

Now Leeds must beat Tottenham next Sunday and hope that Bournemouth, who have nothing to play for, do them a favour at Everton. If Leicester beat Newcastle on Monday night, Leeds will start the final day second from bottom.

They had got off to the perfect start at the London Stadium when Rodrigo volleyed them into the lead after 17 minutes.

But Rice, named West Ham’s player of the year before kick-off – marked what will probably be his last home game for the club by equalising after 31 minutes.

Bowen then added his 12th goal of the season after 72 minutes with a clever finish before a late strike from Lanzini in added time put the icing on the cake for David Moyes' Europa Conference League finalists.

Allardyce said after the game: “It tells you everything about the squad as a whole. There’s two areas you have to be really good at – defending and the quality in the final third.

“Unfortunately for us, particularly in the final third, the amount of times we had men in the box, but the final ball was not good enough.

“We had one chance in the second half to get back to 2-2, which would have been a result I would have been satisfied with. But we failed to take it and at this level you pay the consequences.

“We threw caution to the wind with four up top at the end and it never happened.

“Based on the first half performance and the first 15-20 minutes I knew one goal would not be enough. We had several opportunities to do better, we were the better team in the first half.

“The second half was not as good but we needed to keep it tight and when chances came, take it, and that’s were you have to be resilient at this level and we weren’t.”

West Ham manager Moyes admitted he had been concerned about how his team would react after their draining midweek Europa Conference League semi-final win at AZ Alkmaar.

“Terrific victory,” said Moyes. "I was a bit wary after the game on Thursday night and how much we put into the game. We knuckled down, we were a bit sloppy for the opening 15 minutes but after that we got control.

“I thought them getting a goal maybe brought us to life a bit more. We did a lot of good things, we probably could have scored more goals.

“We want to keep progressing and I thought today we played well, especially in the second half. We missed some chances but I'd rather be missing them than not making them at all.

“We are not shouting about the position we are finishing in the table but we are really pleased to be in a European final. We hope we can go on and win it. The players have put in an enormous amount of work throughout the season.”