German football writer Constantin Eckner joined The Football News Show to outline why Bayer Leverkusen are heavy favourites to beat West Ham United in the Europa League and why, with their first Bundesliga title in the bag, they'll be motivated by more trophies rather than remaining unbeaten for the entire season in all competitions.
West Ham have made enquiries about 24-year-old Panathinaikos and Greece striker Fotis Ioannidis. (Football Insider), external
The Hammers have also scouted Real Betis' Juan Miranda, although Brentford, Crystal Palace and Wolves are also keen on the 24-year-old Spain left-back. (HITC), external
Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesWest Ham United’s George Earthy has been discharged from hospital after the head injury he suffered in Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Fulham.
Earthy, 19, entered the field as a late second half substitute to make his Premier League debut at London Stadium, only to be withdrawn in stoppage time.
He was immediately transferred to a local hospital for further assessment.
Earthy will now follow FA and Premier League concussion guidelines ahead of his return to play.
Richard Collinge, Performance Director at West Ham United, said: “George is back home and we will continue to monitor him over the coming days as he completes the graduated return to play programme.”
We asked for your views on West Ham's defeat to Fulham on Sunday.
Here are some of your answers:
West Ham fans
Ian: Thought we started OK and Antonio should score from six yards. They score from a mistake and then sat back. As the game progressed we looked tired and short of ideas. Our lack of depth in the squad is really showing. Earthy looked good on his debut and hope the head injury isn’t serious. Saw him at Borehamwood pre-season and looks like a good prospect.
Josh: A really disappointing loss. It was an opportunity to win but the team looked tired and leggy after so many Thursday - Sunday weeks. We’ve played more games than Fulham this season and it showed. The lack of squad depth compared to the teams around us also showed. Need to strengthen significantly this summer if we are to continue to move forward.
Martin: No energy, no game plan, no fight. Spent most of our possession on the left wing playing tippy-tappy football before Paqueta gave the ball away. Defence was poor. Antonio was our only chance of a goal and he was hugging the left touchline all second half, very strange.
Fulham fans
Adam: Fulham were unlucky against Newcastle but we showed our quality against a good West Ham team. All fans are happy about Pereira and his double as he has been missing the art of scoring until now. We played well and we hope we can keep it up to the end of the season. Come on Fulham.
Bob: First of all my very best to George Earthy for a good recovery. It's always good to beat your London rivals. We need to be more clinical in front of goal and put more of our chances away. Still, we were strong and snuffed out any danger from West Ham. All but safe now so well done lads.
Keir: Story of our season … if we score first we don’t get beaten. Fair play to the boys for keeping up the tempo for the full 90 minutes .
Jason Mohammad introduces highlights and analysis from Sunday's three Premier League fixtures.
If you missed Match of the Day 2, you can catch up on the action on BBC iPlayer.
Listen back to Sunday's BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra match commentary in full:
Emily Salley
BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty ImagesWest Ham are searching for their fourth successive season of European football, but today's performance against Fulham shows that may prove difficult.
The despair of fans could be seen clearly by the mass of empty seats in London Stadium when the full-time whistle went.
Fulham appeared to have more desire and drive to push forward and looked dangerous every time they did so, exposing the gaps left by West Ham's defence.
The Hammers are desperately missing top scorer Jarrod Bowen, with Michail Antonio and Danny Ings squandering the few chances they had.
Antonio should have netted an early opener, while Ings should have equalised before the break when he found himself unmarked in the box.
It was another lacklustre performance that piles the pressure on manager David Moyes and dents the team's confidence for Thursday's second-leg Europa League tie.
West Ham stand no chance against newly crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen if they have a repeat of today's showing.
David Moyes spoke to BBC Match of the Day after West Ham's defeat to Fulham: "I thought we started really well, for the first 20-25 minutes we played well. In the main, we had done some good stuff but ultimately didn't have enough to get a win.
"We lacked a little bit of energy as the game went on and the second goal was a killer for us.
"The difficult part is going Thursday to Sunday, Sunday to Thursday you have more time and I hope we have a chance to do it again, we are enjoying it."
West Ham are winless in their past four home games in the Premier League (D3 L1), their longest run within the same campaign since October-December 2019 under Manuel Pellegrini (six games).
This was Fulham’s fourth London derby win of the current Premier League campaign (v West Ham twice, Arsenal and Spurs); their most in a season.
West Ham have conceded the opening goal in 10 Premier League matches in 2024; the joint-most of any side, alongside Luton. Indeed, they’ve not kept a clean sheet in any of their past 13 league games – their longest run without one since July 2020 (14).
Fulham’s Andreas Pereira scored the first brace of his Premier League career (111th appearance), having not netted in any of his previous 29 games before today.
Andreas Pereira became the first Fulham player to score a brace away from home in a London derby in the Premier League since November 2012, when Dimitar Berbatov did so against Arsenal.
Andreas Pereira scored twice to give Fulham a rare win at West Ham in the Premier League.
Despite a nervy start, Fulham took an early lead when Konstantinos Mavropanos failed to deal with Alex Iwobi's tricky ball into the box.
The mistake was leapt upon by Pereira, who swerved past Lukasz Fabianski before slotting into an empty net.
The Brazilian doubled the visitors' lead when he tapped in from close range at London Stadium.
It is the first time the Cottagers have won a Premier League game at West Ham since 2001.
Victory at London Stadium completed Fulham's league double over the Hammers - their first since the 1965-66 season - and lifted them up to 12th in the table.
David Moyes' side failed to boost their chances of European qualification by jumping above Newcastle and Manchester United into sixth.
There was a lengthy stoppage just before the end of normal time after George Earthy - only minutes into his league debut for West Ham - suffered a nasty head injury when colliding with team-mate Edson Alvarez.
Earthy, 19, appeared to lose consciousness after his head hit the turf and received medical attention for about seven minutes before being carried off on a stretcher and replaced by Maxwel Cornet.
Were you at the match or did you follow it from elsewhere?
West Ham fans - let us know your thoughts on the game here
Three matches make up Sunday's Premier League action, and we will bring you every moment.
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Listen to radio commentaries of all matches and follow live text updates here
Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches again this season, against a variety of guests.
For this weekend's games, he takes on actor and Leyton Orient fan Daniel Mays.
Sutton's prediction: 2-2
Jarrod Bowen's injury is a big blow for West Ham.
I expected more from Fulham last week but in the end they were pretty insipid in their defeat by Newcastle.
This has got 'draw' written all over it, hasn't it? Let's go for some goals in the game though.
Daniel's prediction: 1-0
David Moyes has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Fulham.
Here are the key lines from the West Ham boss:
Forward Jarrod Bowen is unlikely to be available for Sunday's game, while goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and on-loan midfielder Kalvin Phillips are also doubts.
He said defender Konstantinos Mavropanos "felt something" against Bayer Leverkusen, but the team only arrived back from Germany earlier on Friday so he is unsure yet whether "it is bad or not".
Reflecting on Thursday's Europa League defeat by Leverkusen: "I was pleased with what we did, but disappointed with what happened at the end." He added the Hammers "will have to do better" if they are to turn around the two-goal deficit in the home leg.
On opponents Fulham: "They might be a bit disappointed by their league position, but Marco [Silva] has done a really good job and Fulham have got a lot of good players."
He said after the Europa League disappointment, West Ham "have the opportunity to put it right" at home in front of their supporters.
A win against Fulham could potentially put Moyes' side as high as sixth in the table, depending on other results. "It says a lot that we're at this stage of the season and we're still fighting for a European spot," he said. "The players have done really well. We need to show we can go again when it matters."
Here are the key facts and figures before Sunday's game between West Ham and Fulham in the Premier League.
West Ham are unbeaten in their past 12 Premier League home games against Fulham (W8 D4), since a 2-0 loss in their first meeting in the competition in November 2001. The Hammers have won the past five, scoring three goals on four occasions.
Following their 5-0 win at Craven Cottage in December, Fulham are looking to complete their first league double over West Ham since 1965-66.
Only bottom two sides Burnley (14) and Sheffield United (15) are on a longer run without a Premier League clean sheet this season than the Hammers' 12. However, David Moyes' side have also scored in their past seven games, losing just one of these.
Only Burnley and Sheffield United (12 each) have failed to score in more Premier League games than Fulham this season, with the Whites' 1-0 loss to Newcastle United last time out the 11th time they have drawn a blank this term.
Mohammed Kudus has had more successful dribbles than any other player in the Premier League this season (91) - the most by a West Ham player on record in a season in the competition (since 2005-06).
Since the start of February (when he netted his first goal), only Manchester City's Phil Foden (nine) has scored more Premier League goals than Rodrigo Muniz. However, only two of the Fulham forward's eight goals have come away from home.
Listen to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra commentary of West Ham v Fulham at 14:00 BST on Sunday
We asked for your thoughts on West Ham's Europa League quarter-final performance against Bayer Leverkusen.
Here are some of your responses:
Matthew: What a waste of my time. Defending was at times respectable, but the number of times we had to rely on Fabianski was incredible! Perhaps if Kudus had scored that one (and only) chance then maybe we wouldn't be out of this tie. Second leg looking dim.
Chris: So unlucky. We didn't deserve that. The difference was the subs. They made four subs that changed the game. Our squad, being wafer thin again, meant we couldn't freshen it up. Same thing happened two years ago when we ran out of energy and got knocked out in the semis.
Agrito: The lads put in a full shift against a Champions League-level team. Credit for them for making the effort. Even the anti-Moyes whinging brigade surely cannot find fault. Let's double-down and try our luck next week.
Gerald: An expected result. At this level parking the bus just encourages the other team to break you down eventually. With our players I want to see attacking football just like most of the teams above us in the Premier League. With the suspensions and injuries let the youngsters show us what they can do!
Terry: You just can't defend for 90 minutes and expect to keep a clean sheet. Sorry, but it's just horrible to watch your team play like this. I would rather we lost 2-0 having a go than just go out with a whimper. So old school - Moyes, please leave.
Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter
Liverpool's unexpected defeat by Atalanta on Thursday, coupled with West Ham's late reverse at Bayer Leverkusen, has damaged England's hopes of securing a fifth Champions League spot next season.
Both England and Germany gained two co-efficient points on the night, thanks to victories for Aston Villa and Leverkusen.
However, Germany's points are worth slightly more as they are divided by seven – the number of Bundesliga teams in Europe this season – rather than England's eight.
So, Germany remain in second spot in the overall table on 16.785, just ahead of England on 16.75.
Additional points are awarded for qualification as well as match results, so Arsenal and West Ham's second legs against German opposition next week are going to be crucial.
With five points on Thursday, from two wins and a draw, Italy has now moved clear at the top with 18.428 and are now virtually certain to get one of the two additional places in next season's Champions League.
Roma, fifth in Serie A, are in line to profit, although it also benefits surprise challengers Bologna, who are fourth.
West Ham and Wolves are interested in signing Union Saint-Gilloise and Algeria striker Mohamed Amoura this summer, but they face competition from Tottenham for the 23-year-old. (GiveMeSport), external
Sam Drury
BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty ImagesDavid Moyes' strategy was evident from the off. West Ham were content to sit deep, frustrate their hosts and look to break when the opportunity arose.
They so nearly executed it to perfection, with Bayer Leverkusen failing to create any clear chances in the first hour or more.
"We'd like to have played more attacking. The players did a brilliant job with the structure," Moyes said.
"But we played against a Champions League side and we're not quite at that level."
Ultimately, though, the pressure told and the Hammers must now end the German side's unbeaten run - and do it in some style - to progress.
That Michail Antonio was a nuisance throughout and caused defender Jonathan Tah plenty of problems will give them encouragement, while getting Jarrod Bowen back fit for the second leg would also be a huge boon.
Even more so given they will be without Emerson Palmieri and, crucially, Lucas Paqueta through suspension after they were yellow carded.
"We have to recognise what we're playing against," Moyes said. "We'll have to do exceptionally well to get that result."
West Ham overturned a first-leg deficit to beat German opposition handsomely in the last round.
A repeat will take some doing but all is not lost - and if they can score the first goal at London Stadium next week, belief will soon return to a Hammers side that is increasingly savvy in European competition.
