Crystal Palace 5-2 West Ham: David Moyes 'embarrassed' as Hammers are battered and humiliated by Oliver Glasner's Eagles after falling 4-0 down inside half an hour… raising further doubts over his future

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As David Moyes and his West Ham players trudged down the tunnel at Selhurst Park, the Crystal Palace anthem Glad All Over by the Dave Clark Five rang in their ears.

For them and the Hammers fans that remained, they were just glad it was all over. And over it surely is now. Not just for their season and any lingering hopes of European football but for Moyes too.

Their thumping 5-2 defeat by Palace, thanks to goals from Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and two from Jean-Phillpe Mateta, left them battered, bruised and humiliated. Moyes’s contract is up in the summer. Can it really go on next season like this?

‘I am so disappointed for supporters who came in today and in truth I am embarrassed to sit here and be speaking on behalf of the team and the way they have performed but I am the manager,’ said Moyes. 

‘I have got to say I have not had many teams who have played like that in my whole career.

David Moyes admitted embarrassment after West Ham's humiliating loss to Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace thumped West Ham 5-2 at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Sunday 

But it was a dismal afternoon for West Ham, who put in a torrid performance at Selhurst Park

‘Maybe we’ve lost a wee bit of the tough culture, the pride in making sure that we didn’t concede and were hard to play against and difficult opposition. We were none of them.’ 

A prickly Moyes refused to take questions on his future but insisted the result had no bearing on it. But what if it’s taken out of his hands? ‘If it is, then it is. Fine. No problem.’

Before Leverkusen, Moyes was bullish about his tenure. This was a club, he said, that bobbed up and down. It was a team that’s been relegated but now, under him, has been in Europe three times in a row and was in the process of trying to make it four.

That’s so much of the frustration about West Ham, though. Like Forrest Gump and his selection boxes, so Hammers fans arrive at every game unsure of what’s going to be served up when Moyes thrusts his hand into collection tin. This was the one with soft centre.

Moyes knows there’s been a few like that. The 5-0 at Fulham, the 6-0 to Arsenal. ‘I don’t think the team in the three years I have been here have gone to the depths in the few games this year,’ he added.

It was clear within half an hour at Selhurst Park it was another of those. Palace, led by the majestic Eberechi Eze, were brilliant and ruthless. West Ham were pathetic and gutless.

Michael Olise made it 1-0 after seven minutes. Eze’s scissor kick doubled the lead after a quarter of an hour. A fittingly comic own goal made it three after 20 minutes when Will Hughes floated a ball into the box and Emerson poked it into his own net.

By the time the fourth went in just after the half-hour, Mateta tapping in from Olise’s cross, the Olés from the Palace fans had already begun. It was all just so easy. It was no surprise when Mateta made it five after the hour.

Olise scored his first goal since returning from injury to send Oliver Glasner's side on their way

It was a stunning display from Palace who were inspired by Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise

Jean-Philippe Mateta continued his impressive form in recent months by scoring two goals

Emerson (right) also faced the ignominy of scoring an own goal as Palace ran riot

West Ham now face a real battle to qualify for Europe and have one win in seven league games

Palace were brilliant and continue to go from strength-to-strength since Glasner took over

Michail Antonio pulled one back just before half-time but no one celebrated. When Dean Henderson missed Tyrick Mitchell’s backpass for a late comedy own goal, there was such little reaction anyone not watching could have missed it. 

Yes, West Ham were missing players like Jarrod Bowen. Yes, playing Thursdays and Sundays is tough.

None of that excused the performance. Palace, though, were fantastic.

‘Amazing performance and amazing win,’ said Palace boss Oliver Glasner. 

Michael Antonio pulled it back to 4-1, but West Ham were unable to launch a comeback 

After they went 3-0 down within 20 minutes, West Ham's players had tried to rally themselves

Eberechi Eze was superb and he backed up his match winning goal against Liverpool last week

‘The first half was nice to watch for me as a manager and everybody here.’

Moyes has long insisted there’s a contract on the table to extend his stay at West Ham if he so desires. You wonder how long it will be until Karen Brady accidentally catches it with her elbow and knocks it into the fire.

Even if Moyes’s future is not up in smoke just yet, their flickering hopes of European football appear to be just that.