London and other parts of the south east move into the highest level of coronavirus restrictions from 00.01am on Wednesday; West Ham's Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace among events affected; follow West Ham vs Crystal Palace with our live blog on Sky Sports website and app
Wednesday 16 December 2020 06:15, UK
David Moyes says football needs to 'look to the future' after a rise in Covid cases means West Ham's London derby with Crystal Palace will now be played without fans.
Up to 2,000 supporters were allowed into football matches for the first time since March when London was initially placed in Tier 2 following the second lockdown.
But after London moves into Tier 3 on Wednesday, West Ham's match with Crystal Palace is one of the games in the capital which will now be played behind closed doors.
"The whole country's in the same situation. All different parts of the country are in Tier 3 and we all have to abide by it," said Moyes.
"We need to get rid of this pandemic. We need to try and go forwards and it's very difficult. We'd just started to see some green shoots of recovery with supporters coming back to the grounds, but unfortunately not now.
"Hopefully it won't be too long. Hopefully, we can try and get over the Christmas period and maybe start to look to the future."
Moyes rules Michail Antonio out of Wednesday night's London derby
Antonio has returned to training but is still short of fitness ahead of the game at the London Stadium.
"Michail is coming on, he is back on the grass," said Moyes.
"I think the game tomorrow might come too early for him. He is coming on and we are getting him closer. We want to get him right, be correct with him. We are missing him and we know that."
With Antonio still recovering from injury and Sebastien Haller continuing to struggle for goals, Moyes was impressed after giving Said Benrahma his first start in the 2-1 win against Leeds.
"Said did a lot of really good things for us at Leeds the other night. He was a big part of us getting a really positive result and the team played well," said Moyes.
"He's had to be patient, because the team have been playing well, but there was an opening which came about and it gave me an opportunity to start him, so let's see how he grows. I think with the amount of games coming up, I still will need to manage him correctly.
"I played him for 80 minutes the other night, probably a bit longer than I was expecting to, but at the time it was 1-1 and I felt he was maybe still able to create a goal. Thankfully we got the goal which allowed me to free him up a little bit.
"I think he is still finding his way and we have been really pleased with him. We are trying to get him up to Premier League speed and get him used to the levels we want him playing at."
