West Ham captain Declan Rice has revealed his frustrations this season, but admits that Hammers are now showing signs of consistency at last.
Seven matches have now been played in all competitions since the start of the year and Moyes’ team have in that time only lost on one occasion, an away trip to Wolves. A far healthier run of form that we had come accustomed to the previous calendar year.
Hammers captain Rice is delighted to see his West Ham side starting to show much needed consistency, however did admit that is pains him greatly to see where we currently sit in the Premier League table.
“I am sick and tired of looking at the table and seeing where we are,” stated the England international to the clubs Official Website. “As a player it is horrible. You are constantly worrying about other people’s results, constantly knowing you have to go out there and win; the pressure is on.”
“We’ve been really unlucky with our defensive injuries, but we have adapted well and we still believe we have enough to push up the table.”
West Ham lost Lucas Paqueta to injury early on, then fell behind to a Joao Felix goal on 16 minutes, after an earlier effort from the Portugal forward was ruled out for offside.
And Kai Havertz was also denied by an offside flag, before the hosts got back on level terms before the half-hour mark as Emerson Palmieri netted against his former club, after Jarrod Bowen flicked on Vladimir Coufal’s cross.l
Tomas Soucek thought he had won it for the Hammers in the closing stages, but Rice was ruled offside, before Chelsea had penalty appears turned down when the Czech midfielder appeared to handle a Conor Gallagher shot
“We’ve started to show some consistency,” added Rice.
“It is always good to play against Chelsea. You always want to win the big games, the derbies.It was good character shown to get the goal back. I thought the point was a fair result in the end. I didn’t think there was much in it.
“When you play against the top sides you always want to go out there and do your best, and I think we did that again.
We played a really good game against Everton, drew at a tough place to go in Newcastle, and got a point against Chelsea; we are heading in the right direction.”
Rice was making his 223rd appearance for West Ham and praised substitute Soucek for his efforts on the day.
“I’ve played with Tomas for so long so it was really easy to adapt,” he added.
“You know what you’re going to get with me and Tom. We’re going to work our socks off and be really solid and hard to play through.
“In the last 20 minutes, it was there for us and we could’ve maybe nicked it.
“But it is a good point and we’ve been solid since the start of the year, so we need to keep going.”
West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal also says he was unable to look at the Premier League table for months during West Ham’s wretched run of results.
“Sometimes when I meet them on the street, some will ask for an autograph which is OK, but others will ask, ‘Why are we playing shit?’,” said the full-back. “I try to be polite and say, ‘It’s football, everyone wants to win but sometimes it’s not possible’.
“We can do everything on the pitch to give them a good result and make them happy. That’s our job and we have to deal with fans like that sometimes.”
“We realised the situation was really serious,” he said. “One month ago, it was horrible to check the Premier League table. That’s why I didn’t check it for months. Now we are climbing up the table and hopefully we can keep going until the end of the season. Against Everton, we felt big pressure and you could feel the intention in the dressing room.”
The Hammers head to north London for a 4.30pm kick-off on Sunday, looking to extend their four-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
