Arsenal fans rubbed salt in West Ham’s wound during the 6-0 humiliation at the London Stadium by chanting cruelly at Declan Rice.
Sunday 11 February 2024 – a day West Ham will forget, but Arsenal and Declan Rice will remember forever.
Before this season, there had never been much of a rivalry between the Hammers and the Gunners.
But that is in the past since Rice’s decision to leave West Ham for Arsenal. The midfielder upset many Kladivars fans by wanting to join the north Londoners.
But after the evidence of West Ham’s spineless, insensitive and disgraceful 6-0 transfer to London rivals, it is not hard to see why he did it.
A London stadium at the best of times can hardly create a decent atmosphere.
Arsenal fans rubbed salt into West Ham’s wound:
Sunday at 2pm never helps. Nor does the tactic that David Moyes has once again displayed of taking no risks.
All the life that was on West Ham’s ground was well and truly sucked out when Rice drilled an unstoppable long-range shot into the top corner in the 65th minute.
It was the ultimate insult, capping one of West Ham’s worst defeats in Premier League history.
But the Arsenal fans, during the 6-0 humiliation, further watered West Ham’s wound with cruel chants of Rice.
When Rice was linked with a move away from West Ham last season, Kladivar fans constantly accompanied him with chants of “more years of Declan Rice”.
The harsh chants about Rice hit the Kladivars in a sore spot:
Declan Rice, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years, Declan Rice playing football the West Ham way.
The travelling Arsenal fans, many of whom encouraged the home fans by holding up Rice shirts during the game, turned this chant against West Ham.
At one point, they mockingly repeated the chant ’10 more years of Declan Rice’ to further upset West Ham.
In the end, however, the West Ham fans took the moral high ground and somehow found it in themselves to applaud Rice when he was substituted.
If 2023 was a memorable year for the East Londoners, it was mainly thanks to Rice and the European trophy he won.
Then 2024 is fast proving to be a year the Hammers will forget without a win as they are on their way down.