McAvennie blasts West Ham for letting slip of three-goal lead v Arsenal
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie has blasted West Ham for their failure to see out their three-goal lead against Arsenal at the London Stadium on Sunday.
David Moyes’ men burst out of the blocks in the first half and were 3-0 up by the 32nd minute before own goals each side of half-time and a late Alexandre Lacazette goal led to the Hammers losing two points from what was a commanding position.
McAvennie has refused to criticise Moyes too much but has admitted he was frustrated by the performance of Mark Noble in the midfield and also the decision to sit back and try to defend their lead, rather than try to build on it.
“I’m not having a go at David but Noble, I’m sorry, you could see he was lost in the midfield,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.
“Three-nil lead, you don’t lose that. You keep going and get on top of them. If you sit back then they’re going to come at you and I thought, ‘they’re a good team and they’ll score goals if you let them come at you’.
“West Ham were three up because they were attacking them. They stopped attacking them and then Arsenal got the goals.”
Craig Dawson scored quite a spectacular own goal in the 61st minute.
McAvennie joked about how the centre-back leathered the ball into the back of his own net but interestingly claimed Moyes’ defence struggles to cope with pressure.
The ex-Hammers striker added: “The defence had done well because the team was attacking and when they had to defend, they defended for their lives. But I don’t think they’re a team that can soak up pressure constantly – something’s going to give.
“It was unfortunate with the own goals, Dawson’s not done anything wrong. He must have thought somebody was behind him. It would have been a great goal if he was a striker.”
West Ham have won just one of their last four matches now and their chances of qualifying for the Champions League could be starting to slip away.
After the international break is over, the Irons play Wolves at Molineux before matches against Leicester, Newcastle and Chelsea.
It’s quite a mixed bag of fixtures but after Chelsea visit the London Stadium on April 24, Moyes’ men finish the season by playing Burnley, Everton, Brighton, West Brom and Southampton.
A lot of those games are winnable so the dream of staying in the European places is still very much alive despite recent setbacks.
In other West Ham news, Tomas Soucek has beaten Vladimir Coufal to the Czech player of the year award.