Moyes: It was a good performance for 80 minutes

 

West Ham United manager David Moyes praised his side’s performance up until the 80-minute mark at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday against Arsenal, before the Gunners scored three times late on to take the points in a 4-1 Premier League win.

Marko Arnautovic had equalised for the visitors with 26 minutes remaining on the clock after Nacho Monreal’s opener from a corner.

But Aaron Ramsey’s cross, which ended up the Hammers’ net after a miss-communication at the back, put the hosts back in the driving seat with eight minutes left before Alexandre Lacazette put a gloss on the scoreline with a double inside the final five.

Moyes, though, was pleased with the way his team applied themselves in the London derby up until the point of Ramsey’s goal, and claimed there were certainly positives to take away from the fixture.

“To be fair, great credit goes to our lads for how well they did and how they stuck at it. Unfortunately, a young player makes a mistake and that’s how you learn; you have to come and get back at it and get better.

“I thought we did a really good job; we contained them for long periods, we played well enough at times, we just didn’t start the second half well enough and they came back into it.

“But look; we have had some good performances today, and today was a good performance for 80 minutes.”

After falling behind, Moyes introduced Chicharito and Manuel Lanzini in search of a way back into the game, and both were involved in the goal as the latter set-up Arnautovic to fire past Colombian stopper David Ospina.

Today was a good performance for 80 minutes. Great credit goes to our lads for how well they did and how they stuck at it

David Moyes

Moyes: It was a good performance for 80 minutes

 

And despite that initially benefitting the Hammers, the manager explained his team may have ultimately paid the price for making the changes.

“Unfortunately, we probably just had too many attacking players on the pitch and it ruined our balance of making sure we did a defensive job well,” he continued.

“But we did have our opportunities too; Marko has been that guy for us this season, and he’s done really well, and he had that couple of opportunities in the first half too, which I haven’t seen back yet, and Mustafi got back but I thought he would have been able to get a shot away.

“But he did really well. Joe Hart [also] was important; he made two very good saves. We need them [goalkeepers] to make saves.

“He made very good ones at Chelsea, we had the same today. You expect your goalkeepers to have lots of difficulties in these games.

“Now, I do know that we need more points to make sure we’re safe. If other teams win, we have to make sure we win ours.”