Newcastle United legend, Alan Shearer has blamed Arsenal stars Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes over Tomas Soucek’s contentious goal for West Ham United during Thursday’s Premier League clash.
Arsenal were left angry as VAR controversially didn’t rule out Soucek’s first-half goal at the Emirates Stadium after the ball appeared to go out of play in the build-up.
The match eventually ended 2-0 in favour of West Ham.
However, Shearer has singled out Rice and Magalhaes for criticism over West Ham’s opening goal for failing to stop Jarrod Bowen, who provided the assist.
“When they look at it, [Arsenal will] be really disappointed,” Shearer told Amazon Prime in his analysis.
“Bowen is able to get in behind Rice and in front of Gabriel. He decided to mark the space instead of mark the man.
“There is plenty to get stuck into despite whether the ball went out or not. If you look at Rice, he doesn’t know where Bowen is.
“Gabriel does know where Bowen is, and he can mark him, he should mark him in reality.
“He goes to defend the space instead of the man. Bowen is the one who causes the damage and keeps the ball alive and Soucek sticks it away.
“From Arsenal’s point of view, it is really poor defending.”