West Ham United lost 3-1 to Arsenal on Monday night.
Pundit Jamie Carragher has told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football (09/12, 10:08pm) that he thinks West Ham United have a ‘big problem’ in midfield.
West Ham hosted Arsenal in the Premier League last night, with neither side in particularly great form as they met at the London Stadium.
The Hammers did take the lead through Angelo Ogbonna’s deflected effort, and they were well in the game for an hour.
However, Arsenal struck three goals in nine second half minutes to turn the game on its head, with Gabriel Martinelli, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring those key goals.
West Ham fell apart in their 3-1 defeat, and boss Manuel Pellegrini now finds himself under huge pressure once again, with the win at Chelsea seemingly just an anomaly.
Pellegrini needs to try and find answers ahead of this weekend’s massive game against Southampton, and he may need to make a change in midfield.
Pundit Carragher suggested that the combination of Mark Noble and Declan Rice is a ‘big problem’, because Noble goes to press the ball and leaves Rice isolated.
It’s then hard for Rice to cover big spaces in front of the back four, and Carragher pointed out how West Ham struggled with Dele Alli against Tottenham Hotspur last month, so Pellegrini may need to re-think the balance in his engine room.
“I do think West Ham have a big problem behind Mark Noble, in that space,” said Carragher. “Dele Alli a few weeks ago caused huge problems there. What Mark Noble does, and he’s different to Declan Rice, is he’s always looking to step out and press, and at times it leaves Declan Rice really isolated on his own. It was a big problem for them against Dele Alli,” he added.
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