There have not been many times when David Moyes has been able to stand back and admire his team’s play from a position of comfort this season.
The complaints over West Ham’s football have been relentless and, given how much criticism has been thrown in his direction, it was easy to understand why Moyes was celebrating so passionately when Declan Rice put this Europa Conference League quarter-final out of Gent’s reach once and for all.
The sceptics, of course, will argue that smashing the fourth-best team in Belgium 5-2 on aggregate is par for the course. After all West Ham had two £30m players in central defence, an England regular dominating midfield and a £50m Brazil international having the time of his life in the No 10 position.
There never really should have been any prospect of them losing to Gent, who had briefly hinted at an upset by shocking the London Stadium with an early goal from Hugo Cuypers.