THE most brutal of returns for the comeback kid.
In East London for the first time since his £105m move across the capital, Declan Rice – now of Arsenal – entered the field as a 57th minute substitute with his new side 2-0 down.
A scenario he could not have imagined when the Gunners were handed this Carabao Cup fourth-round tie at his beloved West Ham – a place that holds so many happy memories.
This memory, however, he will quickly want to erase. Within minutes of coming on, the game was over. Rice watched Jarrod Bowen’s 60th-minute shot deflect past Aaron Ramsdale.
It was only back in June that Rice witnessed Bowen grab an historic last-gasp winner for the Hammers in Prague before he lifted the Europa Conference League in his last Irons act.
How times change, and how teams move on. The chants from the home end reflected that. ‘Declan Rice – you chose the wrong club’. The verdict remains out on that one.
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Mohammed Kudus – bought from Ajax this summer using the Rice kitty – doubled West Ham’s lead just after the break following Ben White’s early own goal.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was unusually timid on the touchline at the London Stadium, but you could sense the anger bubbling inside. His much-changed team put in a real stinker.
The likes of Jakub Kiwior, Fabio Vieira, Kai Havertz and Reiss Nelson were given a chance to ruffle the starting XI order. Instead, they cemented themselves further as bench warmers.
And as for Ramsdale, this was hardly a performance to prove that Arteta’s decision to axe him as No1 was foolish. Again, he looked edgy, nervous and too desperate to impress.
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David Moyes meanwhile will be delighted with his side’s response after a poor recent run of four games in all competitions without a victory.
Moyes was seen embracing Rice on the halfway line during the warm-ups and urged the crowd pre-match not to boo him, rather welcome him back with open arms.
The hosts were anything but welcoming on the pitch with a hearty display of grit and desire, eyeing a chance to reach a quarter-final, and maybe even lift yet more silverware.
In the 16th minute, they were handed a gift their aggressive start deserved. Bowen’s corner towards the near post was thumped in by a lazy-headed glance from White.
Tomas Soucek was shown to be holding Ramsdale’s shirt, stopping him from punching clear, but VAR was not around to spot it. When it rains, it pours for Ramsdale.
Rice began to warm up, met with a small chorus of jeers before a touching standing ovation. His team-mates on the pitch looked to be out of ideas against a trademark Moyes low block.
The second half began with a hopeful boot up field from Ramsdale that sparked a West Ham counter. Lucas Paqueta shrugged off Jorginho and fed Bowen in behind.
Ramsdale stood firm on this occasion with a strong hand as White cleared off the line. Moments later, it was Oleksandr Zinchenko’s turn to look shaky at the back.
Nayef Aguerd’s launched delivery into the Arsenal box was allowed to fall onto the boot of Kudus. The Ghanaian was then bizarrely given time to cut inside by Zinchenko and fire into the bottom corner.
Rice was soon thrown on with the hope of injecting some sort of spark, only for Bowen’s thunderbolt to fizz past him and clip Kiwior’s leg, forcing Ramsdale to palm into his own net.
The rest of the cavalry were sent on by Arteta, but not even the brilliance of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka or Martin Odegaard could turn this around.
Arsenal were playing for the full-time whistle and left for North London at least with a goal to their name as Odegaard jinked into the box and left Lukasz Fabianski rooted.
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Rice was given yet another standing ovation after the match as he applauded all four corners of the ground before racing down the tunnel.
In his eyes, a comeback of the worst kind.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
