Declan Rice sends Leeds United ‘better team’ warning amid relegation battle

Declan Rice has been speaking amid West Ham United’s battle against relegation.

The Hammers are in the thick of the relegation battle, along with Leeds United, currently sitting just one point ahead of the drop, albeit having played a game less than Everton in the final drop spot. Concerningly, West Ham were thrashed 4-0 by Brighton over the weekend, with David Moyes’ men seemingly taking a big step backwards after a recent win over Nottingham Forest, when they themselves scored four.

West Ham now have the Conference League to deal with as well as the Premier League, and they are well aware of the trouble they find themselves in just one season after finishing as high as seventh in the Premier League. As for Leeds, they go up against Brighton this weekend, and they can surely learn something from what Hammers star Rice said after his side’s defeat to the Seagulls.

“We were beaten by a better team,” he told Sky Sports. “Brighton played us off the pitch and made life difficult. But that wasn’t a performance that was acceptable.

“Days like today you have to apologise to the fans as we’ve let the fans and the club down. I’m hurting. The lads are hurting. We thought we’d turned a corner as we’ve been playing better, winning 4-0 and then playing well in the cup. But this is a real setback. They have a unique way of playing and we didn’t work it out. To be out there was demoralising to be honest with you. To try and defend, seeing them keep the ball. I got a yellow card, could have got another one. I never want to feel like that on a football pitch.

“I’d never step on the pitch and allow the opposition to have more passion than me and it’s the same for the others. We’re wearing the shirt of West Ham and the one thing that matters is fighting for the badge. Maybe it didn’t look like we did as we lost 4-0 but I can assure you we tried as best as we could but we were beaten by the better team.”