Moyes spells it out for World Cup stars

David Moyes insists every West Ham player who was at the World Cup needs to shift their focus to all things claret and blue ahead of Boxing Day.

The Hammers play Arsenal when the Premier League resumes.

The Irons have been on a run of three successive league defeats, and they have a number of players returning to the fold after the tournament.

Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta, Nayef Aguerd, and Alphonse Areola are all returning to the fold, and Moyes insists they now need to shift focus to the Premier League.

He told reporters: “No, I’ve not spoken to them about it because they’re paid to play for their club so if there’s football games on, that’s what you’ve got to do. You’re not paid by your international team, so you’ve got to get back and do the work here for your club side and the way you get in your international side is by playing well for your club side, so hopefully you have to get back to playing really well.

“I think it’s a harder thing at this time of year for South Americans than maybe it is for the Brits because we’re sort of hardened at as supporters or watching it as boys or girls at this time of year. I think that it’s a little bit different for boys overseas and I think the South American boys it’s probably even harder.”