On an emotionally charged day at the London Stadium, where West Ham United paid tribute to Billy Bonds, the touching montage played before kick-off served as a reminder of some of the club’s glorious moments of old.
Bonds, who played for the club a record 799 times, lifting the FA Cup twice as captain, before returning as manager, where he achieved two promotions, epitomised the best of West Ham: a leader, a warrior, a fighter.
As a giant banner depicting ‘Bonzo’ was held aloft from the stand bearing his name at the start of Sunday’s contest and a chant of ‘Billy Bonds’ claret and blue army’ went up around the stadium, how West Ham fans must have yearned for a player with Bonds’ leadership qualities come the end of an absorbing match that ended in a 3-2 defeat.
Playing at home to a confident — albeit marginally jaded after their 2-1 win in the Europa League away at Basel on Thursday night — Aston Villa side, Nuno Espirito Santo’s team led twice, but ultimately finished with no points to show for it.
West Ham remain in the relegation zone, three points from safety. With a trip to Manchester City up next on Saturday, their predicament hardly gets any easier.
Sunday’s result against Villa, their ninth defeat from 16 league games, once again highlighted West Ham’s defensive frailties and their dearth of leaders.
Captain Jarrod Bowen had an excellent match on the right of a front three — the diverted effort that put West Ham 2-1 up was his 100th goal involvement (61 goals, 39 assists) in 216 Premier League appearances — but Nuno needs more of his influential qualities, commitment and tireless endeavour across the team.
In recent years, West Ham have lost important figures and personalities in the dressing room, including Declan Rice, Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio and Vladimir Coufal, exposing their soft centre and brittle confidence.
Match officials and players stand for a minute’s applause to honour former West Ham United player Billy Bond (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
In an interview with The Athletic last month, Coufal touched on the leadership vacuum, saying, “What West Ham miss are characters like Mark Noble and Declan Rice. Their leadership was important to the changing room and other players like Aaron Cresswell, Micky Antonio and Angelo Ogbonna had a huge influence in the changing room. They were the old guns.
“Jarrod Bowen is a great leader and the club would be in an even bigger mess without him. But it’s difficult to lead the team as an offensive player. Noble and Rice were midfielders and could see everything. If Jarrod wants to shout at someone, he could be on the other side of the pitch, which makes it harder. Noble and Rice were in the middle, so there was no hiding from them.”
Rather than stepping up, some senior players have been letting their side down this season, a notable example being Lucas Paqueta’s petulant behaviour against Liverpool that earned him a red card.
Even when Villa were trailing 1-0 and then 2-1, there was always a feeling of inevitability that they would somehow drag themselves back into the game.
It was also telling that after going 3-2 up through Morgan Rogers’ magnificent goal, Villa comfortably saw out the game, rather than facing any sort of late West Ham onslaught.
In many respects, Sunday’s defeat showed the two sides of West Ham.
The first, worrying side is their defensive vulnerability, which has already seen them concede 32 league goals this season. They have registered just one clean sheet, a 3-0 victory away to Nottingham Forest, Nuno’s former side, at the end of August.
“When we are ahead, we have to control and manage the game better, and be positive and try and kill the game down,” Nuno told BBC Sport after the Villa defeat. “We are disappointed with the way we conceded the second goal at the beginning of the second half. We know it’s a pivotal moment of the game, that we have to control it. It’s something that is missing in our game.”
However, there are some grounds for optimism.
Nuno appears to have found a nice blend and balance with his midfield trio of Mateus Fernandes — who got West Ham off to a flying start with a goal after just 29 seconds — academy graduate Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa, who had another impressive outing following his goal against Manchester United two weeks ago. Early in the second half, for example, Magassa hit a superb raking crossfield ball perfectly into the path of Bowen on the right wing.
Despite their shaky defence, West Ham can still land a punch themselves.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s team were leading twice, but finished with nothing to show for it (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Bowen was a constant menace. The gifted but sometimes maddening Paqueta, playing as a false nine, can unlock a defence, albeit he’s been below par this season, while Crysencio Summerville grew into the contest in the second half.
Going into the January transfer window, Nuno needs reinforcements, especially with full-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf heading to the Africa Cup of Nations with the DR Congo and Senegal.
A centre-back and centre-forward are surely high on Nuno’s shopping list, with Toulouse’s 23-year-old defender Charlie Cresswell among the players they are monitoring. West Ham are eager to offload James Ward-Prowse and Niclas Fullkrug, too.
But West Ham can’t simply view the January window as a get-out-of-jail-free card.
If Nuno’s side are to survive, they need more players to stand up, take responsibility and summon up the spirit of Billy Bonds, their legendary late captain.
“This is why we are so disappointed, because it was such an important day to honour the memory of Billy Bonds,” Nuno said in his post-match press conference.
“It was an emotional moment, it was a proper tribute to Billy Bonds’ memory. It’s sad that we didn’t finish with a win, so we can celebrate.”