Paqueta makes second half disappearance. Image Sean Whetstone
I should have guessed it would be one of those days when my digital season ticket disappeared from my iPhone and I only made it through the turnstiles with seconds to spare before kick-off. Lucas Paqueta and his wife were behind us in the West stand middle-tier but he was clearly a very unhappy man as our image shows and didn’t appear for the second half writes SEAN WHETSTONE.
Paqueta makes second half disappearance
I thought we held our own for the first 30 minutes and Arsenal didn’t look that special but once that first goal went in our players heads went down and they completely collapsed over the next 60 which included fifteen minutes of madness when we went four down.
Thousands departed at half-time as it is their right – as of course did Lucas – but I decided to stay to the bitter end. Even Paqueta disappeared from his box and didn’t come out after halftime.
Former Hammer Declan Rice scored right in front of us but refused to celebrate and appeared to mouth a “sorry” to West Ham fans in front of him.
He was applauded off by both sets of fans with only a small minority deciding to boo. As more and more left the London Stadium before the game ended as the fifth-worst defeat in West Ham‘s history,
It was our worst result at the London Stadium and the worst defeat since October 2001 when West Ham lost 7-1 to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League.
When the final whistle came David Moyes came onto the pitch to applaud fans in the Billy Bonds stand who stayed to the end.
Declan Rice did a lap around the London Stadium also applauding Hammers fans before embracing David Moyes.
Vladimir Coufal and Tomas Soucek they stayed out and did a lap also applauding fans who stayed, a nice touch from the Czech mates. Soucek even gave his shirt to a very young pitch invader who ran onto the pitch to greet him.
Yes, It was a very poor result but these are the same players, the same manager and the same tactics that beat Arsenal twice already this year including getting three points at the Emirates.
How the manager and team come back from a disappointing result is what is important.
COYI