David Moyes pleaded for attention after watching West Ham United suffer a 6-0 defeat at Arsenal at the London Stadium, saying the performance was down to weak defending and a lack of fight.
The result equaled the club’s heaviest home defeat in the league – an 8-2 reverse at Blackburn Rovers in 1963 – and saw fans flocking to the exits, especially after former West Ham United captain Declan Rice After scoring the sixth goal in the 65th minute.
Moyes struggled to find the right words at times as he picked through the wreckage but urged fans to remember the progress he had witnessed with last season’s Europa League triumph. West Ham United are eighth in the Premier League and have reached the knockout rounds of the Europa League.
“We beat Arsenal 2-0 at the end of December, so you must not forget that what you saw today was Arsenal and what you saw a few weeks ago was us,” Moyes said. “As a football supporter, especially at this club… I came back twice to help them escape relegation… there are always bad times.
“It’s fair to say that in the last three years it’s been the best time West Ham has ever had. Sixth and seventh in the league, Europa League semi-finals, European Cup finals, I still think this club has grown .
“There’s no doubt we had a bad day today and I understand that they [the fans] Leave but sometimes in football clubs you have bad days. We had a bad day today, but I certainly won’t forget the good day.
“It’s disappointing for me, since I’ve been back at the club, that I don’t think my team has defended in this way. Ever. We were weak, we didn’t do our job well enough. We didn’t work harder. Contain the situation and make sure we don’t concede goals, and we might concede other goals as well. Maybe my team here doesn’t have the quality we have here, but we’ll make sure we don’t perform like that – that’s for sure.”
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Bukayo Saka, who scored both of Arsenal’s goals to take the club’s tally past 50, said: “Today we smelled blood and started killing. We would have Could have scored more, including myself. I’m proud to have scored 50 goals for Arsenal but when I miss opportunities like I did before, I can’t be completely happy.”
