West Ham vs Sunderland match report: Hammers leave it late as David Moyes suffers seventh defeat in nine

After recent troubles, police security at the London Stadium was yet again beefed up to keep an eye on a potentially unruly crowd - but it is job security which will be the main concern for David Moyes after his side fell to yet another defeat thanks to a late, late Winston Reid goal.

It was a seventh defeat in nine Premier League games this season for the Black Cats, but for Slaven Bilic and West Ham the London Stadium is starting to feel a bit more homely.

Reid’s 93rd-minute strike kicked away the frustration of the previous 92 minutes as Dimitri Payet finally broke down a stubborn Sunderland defence.

One of the features of the new London Stadium seemed to be a halved pitch, with much of the first-half action played nearly exclusively in Sunderland’s half. The action was so far from Hammers goalkeeper Adrian that he spent much of the game further away from the ball than the lower-tiered fans, despite the chasm between the action and the supporters.

The hosts started the brighter of the two sides, with Simone Zaza’s dangerous header deflecting over the crossbar before the bubbles had barely been given a chance to settle on the ground.

Slaven Bilic made one change to the side that ended the run of six games without a win last time out, with Edimilson Fernandes replacing the suspended Aaron Cresswell.

West Ham’s three-man defence was relatively untroubled for the first 30 minutes by Sunderland’s stunted attack, despite the presence of resoundingly-booed ex-Hammer Jermain Defoe.

At the other end Payet was looking like the Payet of last season, jinking through defenders and testing Jordan Pickford’s reflexes before striking the base of the post in the 26th minute.

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However, as the half wore on, Sunderland began to threaten as West Ham’s opening half-hour comfortability faded.

Sunderland rode their luck in the opening stages but grew into the half well with Defoe and Patrick van Aanholt having sighters on Adrian’s goal.

One of Slaven Bilic’s two Premier League goals as a West Ham player came against Sunderland, and what he would have given to have that goal in the first half.

Zaza’s bicycle kick on the stroke of half time was enough to inject some life into the atmosphere but it was very much a case of West Ham failing to take their chances and capitalise on their periods of total domination.

If Zaza’s acrobatics were enough to wake up the hosts before the break, then Wahbi Khazi bursting through one-on-one with Adrian should have done the job at the start of the second half, as the Spaniard stood tall to block the weak effort.

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Van Aanholt’s two efforts were enough to give the travelling fans belief that they could be about to see Sunderland nick their first three points of the season as the atmosphere – and the game – was turned up a notch.

While much of the first half was played in Sunderland’s half, the second become more end-to-end with both sides trying to poke holes in the other’s defence.

West Ham managed to calm Sunderland’s fleeting attacks and retake control of possession to bookend the game nicely with their domination.

However, unlike in the first half, there was a goal at the end of it – the very end of it. Payet picked up a short corner and layed it to centre-back Reid on the edge of the area, who shimmied past one before breaking Pickford’s resolve with the last kick of the game.

West Ham (3-4-3): Adrian, Reid, Kouyate, Ogbonna, Antonio (Feghouli 63), Noble, Obiang, Fernandes, Lanzini (Fletcher 84), Payet, Zaza (Calleri 69).

Subs not used: Spiegel, Collins, Nordtveit, Oxford.

Sunderland (4-5-1): Pickford, Manquillo, O’Shea, Kone, Van Aanholt, Rodwell, Pienaar (McNair 80), N’Dong, Khazri (Jones 86), Watmore (Gooch 75), Defoe.

Subs not used: Mika, Djilobodji, Anichebe, Honeyman.

Referee: B Madley (West Yorkshire)

Attendance: 56,985