Michael Owen has stated that Declan Rice and Aaron Cresswell were unhappy with the lack of defensive work from Said Benrahma during West Ham United’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Sunday at the London Stadium.
The former England striker slammed Said Benrahma, 27, for ‘ball-watching’ for both of Arsenal’s goals, which were scored by Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
The cross for the Jesus goal came from Ben White, who Benrahma should have been marking, before he was five yards off Odegaard, who volleyed in his side’s second after ten minutes. That’s when Michael Owen noticed Declan Rice and Aaron Cresswell showing their displeasure towards their teammate.
At that point, the mood around the London Stadium wasn’t great, with fans booing and expressing their frustration towards the team.
But a moment of madness from Arsenal, opened the door that led to a penalty, which Benrahma converted, and then, the whole mood around the place changed, before Jarrod Bowen levelled the scores in the second half after Bukayo Saka’s missed his penalty.
But David Moyes’ side didn’t make life easier for themselves, just like against Newcastle last time out, during the early exchanges of the game and Owen was sure to highlight it all, as he told Premier League Productions (16/04/23 at 2:55 pm).
“I thought Said Benrahma was ball-watching,” said Owen. “In fact, I thought he was ball-watching for both goals.
“Here is the first one, Benrahma should have been back in the left-back position (to cover Ben White). Cresswell had to move inside because of Saka. He can’t get back out. I think Benrahma will be looking at himself.
Read Related Also: Little People’s Audrey Roloff reveals off messy bedroom covered with clothes & shoes inside $2M Oregon home in new video
“But I think, more importantly, his teammates will be looking at him. They certainly made their feelings known for the second goal.
“You can highlight Benrahma (for Odegaard’s goal) just ball-watching yet again. Again, in the middle of the pitch, you have got Cresswell who had to come inside.
“We can see the reaction of all the players. Declan Rice and Cresswell. They are all looking at Benrahma saying ‘come on, you have to do your defensive duties as well’. We all know, going forward, he is a talent. But, at the back post, he was left wanted again.”
A POINT GAINED
In West Ham’s quest to survive, this is certainly a point gained, from their perspective and one they can very much add to their survival hopes.
They are four points above the drop zone, still in danger, but slowly creeping towards safety.
If 16th-placed Leeds United beat Liverpool on Monday night, then they will leapfrog them, but either way, if the Hammers can get around the 38-point mark, or even less, then they should avoid the dreaded drop to the Championship.
In other news, Report: Slaven Bilic may be on West Ham United radar to replace Moyes
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
