David Moyes
On whether West Ham should have had a penalty
“I think this weekend we’re seeing more soft penalty kicks given in the Premier League, in my opinion, than we’ve seen all season. So I think if those ones were given I would have expected today’s to be given. But it’s got to be really correct. I thought today’s was worthy of that if that’s the level [those given on Saturday] of penalty kicks.”
On the Hammers performance
“Our performance was better than we’d played, but in the final third – we’ve seen it a few times recently – we’ve not quite been able to make the final pass or do something a bit special. We scored three goals against Chelsea last week but we couldn’t get any today. But we tried hard and if anyone was going to win it, it was certainly going to be us. I thought we had a good part in dominating the game today.”
How could a new striker help Michail Antonio?
“I don’t know. I’ve been a player and sometimes having competition is not what you want. Sometimes you want to know that you’ll get picked every week. Mic deserves to be picked for our team because of what he’s done. We are looking for better but not just from Mic. The goals from Mic are not the biggest thing. It’s his performance level that I’m looking for. I’m looking for the standards from when everyone was talking about him so thoroughly and rightly so. But I think that was because of his all-round performances and I think that’s the bit we’re looking for. His goals will come.”
Is it frustrating to beat teams like Chelsea and Liverpool but struggle against Burnley?
“I think it’s part of growing your football club. We said this season that we wanted to challenge the top teams. We’ve done that quite well. Last season we had a near perfect record against teams below us in the league. Maybe teams have tightened up, maybe they’re harder for us. I think we’ve just not quite done as well as we should have done in this period. You couldn’t question our work in the opening couple of months of the season for example. We were clean, clinical, crisp. It’s just a little bit hard to get to that point at the moment. We’re just trying to find that little bit extra. But we found it enough to get the three goals against Chelsea last week.”
Will Cresswell be back for the game against Arsenal on Wednesday?
“I’m hoping so. We’re really short as you can see and will look to muck through the best we can. But I’ll wait and see when we get back tomorrow, see how he’s done today. He was in training today. So hopefully there might be some news when we get back tomorrow morning.”
On Declan Rice’s performance
“Declan was the one who raised the levels and the standards, took the fight to Burnley, certainly in the second half. Looked at one point as if he was going to waltz through everybody and score. He done great to try and find a way. I think he keeps trying to show in the final third, he was trying to make the difference for the team, but I think overall he played very well.”
Would West Ham have been given the penalty at home? Or if they were a ‘bigger’ team?
“I’ve really enjoyed the referee this year I think the refereeing this year has been excellent. I even think VAR has done as well on occasions. We were unlucky against Brighton which I am still yet to see. But just after watching the games yesterday and seeing the penalty kicks you’d say what is the difference between that one [on Dawson] and say Chelsea yesterday which I thought looked quite soft. So what are the levels? So if VAR is the same I am looking and at VAR to decide the levels. Now yesterday they got it wrong. It’d be great to come out said no we got these wrong we are really sorry and we would all accept that because I think today’s one was certainly I thought what I saw was poorer than the ones yesterday.”
Should Declan Rice have gone down under a challenge at the end to try and win a penalty?
“No, I don’t want my players to go down easy. I want my players to stay on their feet. I want them to be honest. There was a couple of players went down a bit easy in the first half that I didn’t like. Yeah, I want penalty kicks but I want it to be done for the correct reason. I don’t like the game being played in a way where you find a way of getting a penalty. That’s not the way I see football.”
