David Moyes' reign at West Ham is ending with a whimper as he saw his side fall to an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea who were inspired by former Hammers target Cole Palmer

David Moyes revealed before this London derby that West Ham came “close” to signing Cole Palmer last summer.

But the Scot’s shambolic defence got nowhere near the England star or any other Chelsea attacker at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in an embarrassingly one-sided defeat. The £42.5m bargain opened the scoring with his 16th home Premier League goal of the season to equal the Blues record set by Chelsea legends Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.

Fellow Englishmen Conor Gallagher and Noni Madueke also scored before the break before Nicolas Jackson added two to follow his goal against Spurs last week. Even in the opening half, Blues fans were mockingly chanting: “Are you Tottenham in disguise?”.

The win keeps alive Chelsea’s hopes of European football next season - and Mauricio Pochettino’s chances of staying for a second season. That would see one of these managers still in London next season as Moyes’ long goodbye is ending on a horrible low just a year after the high of winning the Europa Conference League.

A new head coach will oversee a summer rebuild with Lucas Paqueta - whose aborted sale to Manchester City could have involved Palmer - the most valuable asset if the uncertainty over his betting charges is resolved.

What is sure is the impact that Palmer has made in SW6 instead of Stratford. He netted his 21st league goal of the season with a finish which deflected in off Vladimir Coudal after 14 minutes when the ball broke free following a Madueke cross.

He is also only the third player aged 21 or younger to be involved in 30 or more goals in a single Premier League season after Robbie Fowler (1994-95 and 1995-96) and Chris Sutton (1993-94).

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The stats for Hammers are less impressive. That is 16 league games without a clean sheet for the Hammers but it was only going to get worse. By the end they had conceded their 70th goal of the campaign with only the bottom three letting in more.

Gallagher doubled the lead after half an hour with a super volley. And the Hammers contrived to leave two players unmarked from Mudryk’s 36th-minute corner when the recalled Thiago Silva headed back for Madueke to nod home.

Between getting fouled by Chelsea players on a rotation basis, Jarrod Bowen twice hit the bar in a first half where the Hammers could not manage a shot on target. James Ward-Prowse came on for Alvaraz at half-time and forced Djordje Petrovic into his first save from a free kick after 55 minutes.

But by then more Keystone Cop defending had ended the contest. After 47 minutes, Trevoh Chalobah’s pass from right-back was not cut out and Madueke unselfishly set up Jackson for a tap-in.

Shortly after Bowen hit the bar for the third time, Jackson netted a second - and his 16th of an inconsistent season after a long VAR check for offside. Since the 5-0 humiliation at Arsenal, Pochettino’s side have responded by fighting for a draw at Aston Villa and derby wins over Tottenham and now West Ham.

Christopher Nkunku came off the bench for his first appearance since the EFL Cup final to add to the refound feelgood factor. While home players went on a post-match lap of honour, the apologetic Coufal, Bowen and Tomas Soucek gave their shirts to the few Hammers fans who stayed until the end.