Robert Snodgrass asked the Claret and Blue Army to ‘keep the faith’ after West Ham United fell to an unfortunate 3-1 Premier League defeat at Arsenal.
The Hammers were much-improved at Emirates Stadium, creating chances galore and going ahead through Marko Arnautovic’s well-taken first half finish.
However, just as was the case at home to AFC Bournemouth a week previously, missed opportunities allowed the opposition to turn the game around in the second half and leave Manuel Pellegrini’s team without as much as point as reward for their efforts.
This is football. It’s obviously very difficult to take but we must keep going. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves
Robert Snodgrass
“It’s very disappointing,” Snodgrass told West Ham TV. “We’ve got an upset dressing room in there because, in massive spells of the game, we were the far better team and that’s exactly what the manager wanted.
“We’ve still got to defend a bit better and people are probably looking at us saying ‘you’ve got to take your chances’ and we should have done.
“I had a great chance and I should have scored. Marko had a few chances and so did Antonio and Felipe and we were right in the game but I just think, if we build on performances like that and the fans stick with us – I thought they were brilliant supporting us again, superb – then there are better times ahead.
“We are going through a transitional period and the manager wants to change it from last season, so we need to keep believing, we need to keep playing that way attacking-wise, creating chances and we’ll definitely take them. We need to take them, anyway, if we’re going to get any sort of result.
“We did well in the early stages, but it’s ultimately disappointing again.”
West Ham had 13 goal attempts at Emirates Stadium, five of them on target, including one gilt-edged opportunity which saw Snodgrass himself denied by Petr Cech with the game poised at 1-1 a minute before half-time.
While the post-match feeling was ultimately one of huge frustration, Snodgrass said the Hammers cannot afford to lick their wounds three matches into the new season.
“This is the Premier League and they are fine margins. That’s why we’re disappointed, because we know we should have taken our chances. This is football. It’s obviously very difficult to take but we must keep going. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves.
“We’ve been working very hard on the training ground to make it right and you saw it in large spells today. I thought we were good and I think the fans watching that would have been happy with what they were seeing, people working hard for each other and running, but ultimately we’ve lost and it’s disappointing because nobody wants to lose.
“The fans are unhappy, the players are unhappy and it’s a very unhappy dressing room, but the manager has touched on being a lot happier than he was after Bourmemouth because we created a lot more chances. That’s definitely a performance we need to build on.
“We need to assess today. People watching that, it could have gone either way. We need to keep the faith. We need to believe. That’s the whole point behind it. It doesn’t matter who’s out there, that’s the level of performance we need. On another day, we’ll take our chances and get a better result.”