Crystal Palace put five past West Ham to leave David Moyes on shaky ground

Two more years? Increasingly unlikely. If exiting the Europa League to Bayer Leverkusen, Europe’s most in-form team, was excusable, the manner of West Ham’s defeat to Crystal Palace may have put a line through David Moyes extending his stay. This was punishing, West Ham’s manager doing little to hide his personal disappointment as a former nemesis came back to haunt him.

Two seasons ago, Oliver Glasner’s Eintracht Frankfurt team denied Moyes’ Hammers in the Europa League semi-final, and had Palace not moved for the Austrian, he might well have been in contention for the vacancy very likely opening up at the London Stadium.

Last week’s tactical coup at Anfield both secured Premier League football for Palace next season and pointed toward’s Glasner’s progressiveness. The latter is the quality Moyes, for all he has delivered in east London – copper-bottomed security and a European trophy – is accused of lacking. Here was a brutal exposure of why so many Hammers fans remain unsure about their most successful manager of the 21st century. If a Moyes team cannot supply solidity and shape then with entertainment off the menu, it has little to offer a fanbase craving thrills paired with devotion to the cause. Palace even supplied a comedy element with the mix-up between Tyrick Mitchell and Dean Henderson that registered West Ham’s second goal.

Glasner – fresh, smily, full of Euro sass – has been helped, where Roy Hodgson was hindered, by being able to field Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise in the same team. Palace’s flightiest Eagles soon hit their rhythm. A couple of flicks and drops of the shoulder from Eze began a move from which Joachim Andersen, a rarely spotted overlapping centre-back, set up Olise to nod in a seventh-minute first.

Next, the pair combined to set up Mitchell to shoot wide, and then Eze’s dancing feet found him space to drive past Lukasz Fabianski’s post. End-of-season carnival capers perhaps, particularly when Jean-Philippe Mateta is performing lollipops but here was the expressive, off-the-cuff football so seldom seen during Moyes’ reign.

Mateta was in the mood. His shot, following another pinpoint pass by Eze, was saved by Fabianski to be converted by a flying volley from Olise, a brilliant finish followed by hip-swivelling sexy samba celebration. West Ham were being cut to ribbons, as were hopes of a return to European football. By the 21st minute, after Will Hughes dug out a cross, Emerson Palmieri’s own-goal added farce to the already heady gumbo of fecklessness.

Moyes’ temper had long boiled over, fourth official James Bell and his assistants bearing the brunt. Palace’s attackers had made a mockery of West Ham bordering on cruelty, Moyes sat arms crossed, swaddling himself amid embarrassment, Mateta made it four. West Ham’s absentee defence looking to be now considering their holiday options amid freezing April weather. Adam Wharton, Palace’s deep-lying playmaker, excellent until leaving the field on the hour, was given space and time to spray the ball as he liked, perhaps even light a cigar if he so fancied.

“Sacked in the morning” could be heard from the away contingent during that early onslaught and even when Michail Antonio poked in a Hammers goal, Moyes’ expression remained rictus with desolation.

If any slight Hammers improvement came after half-time, Palace remained the more threatening. Olise’s shot was cleared off the line, both he and Eze continuing to bob and weave as they pleased. Eze laid up Mateta for the fifth, the striker given time to pick his target. It seems unlikely that Moyes will be handed such self-determination over his future