Moyes to loosen the reins after Hammers frustrate Gunners
DAVID Moyes enjoyed another impressive defensive display from his West Ham side in a goalless draw with Arsenal and is now ready to take the handbrake off.
Arsenal dominated possession at the London Stadium but West Ham could have snatched the points when Javier Hernandez hit the crossbar late on.
Having led Manchester City before losing 2-1 and then beaten Chelsea 1-0, it was a third strong outing in succession against the Premier League’s big boys and sets the Hammers up nicely for games against Stoke, Newcastle, Bournemouth and West Brom.
Moyes said: “I saw the fixture when I took the job and I thought, ‘Oh no, here we go’.
“But we’ve tightened up, we’ve not conceded many goals in the last couple of games, and we were a bit unfortunate against Man City.
“I want our football to be better, I want us to create better chances, but it’s one step at a time.
“Against the better teams we’ve tried to make sure we don’t concede, the other games might give us more chances to be on the front foot.”
Captain Mark Noble was one of the stand-out performers and set up Hernandez’s late chance, which saw goalkeeper Petr Cech possibly get the slightest touch to the Mexico striker’s curling shot.
Noble said: “At the end with Chichi (Hernandez), he always hits the target but you would hope he would bury them, I think it was a good save in the end by Cech.
“They’ve got such a good amount of special players, you have to defend — simple as. Last year we got done here by the so- WEST HAM: Adrian, Zabaleta, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Noble, Obiang, Lanzini, Antonio (Hernandez 82), Arnautovic.
Subs not used: Carroll, Sakho, Collins, Ayew, Hart, Rice.
ARSENAL: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Wilshere, Iwobi (Welbeck 70), Ozil, Sanchez (Lacazette 82), Giroud. Subs not used: Ospina, Chambers, Kolasinac, Coquelin, El Neny. Man of the match: Arnautovic
Match rating: 6/10
Referee: Jonathan Moss
called bigger teams by three or four so to keep two clean sheets (and get) four points is a great reward.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was frustrated after watching his side fall further behind the Premier League’s pace-setters.
He said: “Of course we are concerned but Man City are so far away, the whole league is concerned.
“We had so much of the ball, we played 10 against 10 in one third of the pitch and we couldn’t score.
“(West Ham) did that against Chelsea, against City, they did it against us. They were really focused to defend and they didn’t come out at all.”
One positive for Wenger was the performance of Jack Wilshere on his first league start for Arsenal since May 2016.
Wenger said: “I think he had a positive performance, the first half especially he had good acceleration, he was involved in attack and he defended well, that is very important for me as well.
“For a first game, I must say it’s a very positive performance.”