Had Declan Rice's mistake happened playing for the Republic of Ireland, one could be forgiven for thinking that Martin O'Neill would be effusively praising him just for his presence. The charm offensive has been fulsome, but David Moyes was not in a charitable mood.
Moyes said that Rice's mistake 'flattened' the team and that he had 'no idea' why the defender would make such an obvious error. West Ham's future in the Premier League is not yet assured. Rice ducked away from a clearing header from Aaron Ramsey's cross, which floated straight into Joe Hart's net to consign the Hammers to an eventual 4-1 defeat. Until that point, they had been more than a match for Arsenal on a day where one might expect the latter to provide Arsene Wenger with a more fitting send-off.
"You can never let the ball go. You deal with it and you argue about it afterwards," said Moyes in his post-match press conference.
"We are distraught for the team because I thought the team's efforts were incredible. We've had good results and I think today we were going a long way to getting a good result."
On OTB AM, this prompted a heated debate over whether Moyes' approach was the right one, particularly with the potentially fragile confidence of a young player.
The Irish Independent's Johnny Ward felt it was 'reprehensible' and 'desperate man management' to treat a young player like that in public. Presenter Ger Gilroy disagreed with Johnny's assessment, saying that Moyes was just holding him accountable for his actions.
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