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David Moyes reveals important things West Ham discussed to inspire Arsenal fightback .
David Moyes has admitted he was talking about putting pressure on Arsenal ahead of West Ham’s good comeback at the London Stadium.
The Scot`s side earned a vital point in their battle against the drop after being 2-0 down inside ten minutes, with the initiative handed to Arsenal by early goals from Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
Following Benrahma’s penalty to close the gap, Jarrod Bowen scored his fifth Premier League goal of the season, and if Michail Antonio’s header didn’t hit the top of the bar in the second half, West Ham would actually have three. I should have gotten all the points.
Arsenal withered from pressure after a hugely impressive opening goal in 25 minutes and were second for the rest of the game as West Ham outduelled and outfought Mikel Arteta’s side.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Moyes was asked if West Ham’s coaching staff had any specific messages for the players after the first half, and he revealed that controlling Arsenal was paramount. important to achieve something in the game.
“We were a bit disappointed with how we conceded the goals, but we were more interested in that we’d got back in the game, how could we keep the pressure on them,” Moyes said.
“It’s difficult because they are such a good footballing team, that’s why they are where they’re at, everyone admires them. Mikel’s (Arteta) done a brilliant job with the team he’s got so for us to keep at it and obviously, moments in football, sometimes the fine line in football is so small.
“They get a penalty kick and you’re saying here if they go 3-1 here it’s going to be very difficult for us because they’ll keep the ball, they’re so good at it, they make it hard. I think in the end, today, we got that little bit of good fortune with the missed penalty and we went on to grow and we went up the pitch and scored.
“To be fair, I think there was periods after that where I quite fancied us to get a third one maybe as we were going on.”
Michail Antonio gave Arsenal’s defense a scorching afternoon, returning to the performances he showed in the 2021/22 season, and appeared to have been particularly successful against Rob Holding, who replaced the injured William Saliba at centre-back.
Probed on whether West Ham tried to isolate and target any of Arsenal’s defenders, Moyes continued: “I don’t think we necessarily targeted any of them, but I thought we had to try and play behind Arsenal and try and put Arsenal on the back foot. We had to try and put Arsenal in a situation where it was a bit more uncomfortable for them.
“We probably got the ball behind the opposition more than we have done all season and as was pointed out, maybe we’ve been doing that in the past and we’ve not been doing it as much. It’s something which today, we played the game in the way which would give us a chance of winning or at least getting something from the game and we got something.”
West Ham travel to Bournemouth next weekend in another crucial game, while Arsenal’s next game is against Southampton on Friday night.