Lingard: West Ham must take their chances to make top four
Jesse Lingard was critical of his West Ham teammates as they failed to kill off the game against Arsenal at the London Stadium.
With the game at 3-2, Michail Antonio missed two big chances to end any chance of a comeback. One was blocked off the line, with the second hitting the post from five yards out.
The Hammers had started the game in devastating form, scoring three goals in the opening 32 minutes. We were the victims of our own downfall, scoring own goals on either side of half time before an Alexandre Lacazette equaliser.
Lingard brilliantly scored the first and provided a clever assist for the second. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said we have to step up if we want to come in the top four.
“Second half we could have finished it off, we had a couple of chances,” said Lingard.
“If we want to be fighting for the top four, we’ve gotta put them away and just have the confidence to play.
“The past five or six games I feel like the focus and concentration has been there. As a group, we stuck together through the difficult periods of the game. Just a bit of lapse in concentration, we should have put the game to bed.”
Disappointing
It’s never nice to throw away a lead, but a three-goal advantage is criminal. We didn’t help ourselves, own goals from Tomas Soucek and Craig Dawson gifted Arsenal a way back into the game when they were dead and buried.
The most concerning thing was the manner in which we defended. In a lot of games this season we’ve led but been able to hold out. Aston Villa, for example, we were 2-0 and they got back into the game. Straight away Lingard scored a second and we won 3-1, killing the game off.
We didn’t see any of that today. The defending was frantic, we didn’t look composed at the back at any point. It’s not something we’ve seen much this season. Moyes had got the backline in order, but today there were holes everywhere.
It’ll be good to get Angelo Ogbonna back in the team soon. His calming presence was missed today, hopefully, after the international break, he’ll be closer to a return.
In other West Ham news, Declan Rice is proving to be an excellent leader at the age of 22.