Arsenal’s defeat to West Ham was a rare bad day at the office for Declan Rice, who struggled against his former club.
While Rice has fared well against the Hammers since his 2023 transfer from the London Stadium, the midfielder was shown up at the Emirates most recently.
The England international was one of several Arsenal players to underperform against West Ham, as Graham Potter’s side left with three points.
Mikel Arteta now has a lot of work to do if the Gunners are to win the Premier League, with the defeat to the Hammers handing Arsenal a significant blow in the title race.
Michael Owen shares Declan Rice verdict after West Ham defeat
Liverpool sit eight points clear at the summit with 12 games to go, indicating that the race is not over but, it’s certainly out of Arsenal’s hands.
One thing that is for sure is that the Gunners can’t expect to win the title with performances like the one seen against West Ham, falling way below the required standard.
Though Rice has earned high praise for his consistency this season, the 26-year-old was incredibly poor against his former club, with the worst part of his display being his failure to track runners.
Rice was guilty of losing Jarrod Bowen as the forward ran into the box and eventually scored, which was a terrible look for the Arsenal midfielder.
What looked like a lacklustre attempt to expel the danger saw Rice heavily criticised but, one pundit made an interesting point about the match-winning passage of play.
On Premier League productions’ coverage of the game, Michael Owen shared his belief that Rice was ‘fearing’ scoring an own goal as Bowen got in behind.
“It’s heading towards his goal so he’s either got to head it over or he scores an own goal so I think that’s what he was fearing,” Owen said at half-time of the match.
As Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s unchallenged cross came into the box, Rice made little attempt to clear the danger, which regardless of his concerns of scoring an own goal, was not acceptable.
Poor goal for Arsenal to concede
Arsenal fans won’t be best pleased with Owen’s comments regarding a possible excuse for Rice not tracking Bowen, as it was a terrible goal for the hosts to concede even before the ball was put into the box.
Riccardo Calafiori was tormented by West Ham throughout the fixture, with the left-back at fault for allowing Wan-Bissaka to carry the ball unchallenged.
Rice wasn’t the only player to lose track of the runner, as Thomas Partey was nowhere to be seen and Gabriel Magalhaes appeared to duck under the ball.
Bowen was allowed to run from midfield into the box to get on the end of the cross, with several Arsenal players guilty of not doing enough to prevent the eventual match-winner.
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