Paqueta's licence to thrill leads to backlash from Moyes

THERE are supposed to be few surprises left in football, but to wake on Sunday morning to find that the ugly aftermath of West Ham's trip to AZ Alkmaar had, without rhyme or reason, and a full year after the event, made it into a Britney Spears Instagram post? Well that, certainly, was unexpected.

- Malik Ouzia

Fast-forward to mid-afternoon, and having already ceded possession in the build-up to Andreas Pereira's opener, Lucas Paqueta found himself culpable for Fulham's second, this time robbed by a crunching challenge from Joao Palhinha that set the Cottagers away on the break to clinch a 2-0 win.

As Pereira swept home once more and Paqueta trudged belatedly back across halfway, Spears might easily have provided the internal monologue: "Oops, I did it again." The blame in neither instance was entirely Paqueta's, and particularly not in the case of Pereira's first goal, laid on by Konstantinos Mavropanos's failure to deal with a routine ball in behind.