The Declan Rice sideshow has deflected attention from the real reunion hero in the West Ham win over Arsenal.
Declan Rice wasn’t the only player facing his old side when Arsenal were comfortably beaten 3-1 by West Ham in the Carabao Cup.
Almost all of the focus before, during and after West Ham’s victory over the Gunners was on Rice’s return to his old stomping ground.
Understandably so in many respects but perhaps a little over the top all things considered.
Everything that there was to be said or written about that particular reunion has been done to death now.
Rice has carried on for Arsenal where he left off for West Ham with excellent performances.
Declan Rice sideshow deflects attention from the real reunion hero in West Ham win over Arsenal
But he struggled when coming on for the last half an hour at his old club.
He made several misplaced passes and failed to have an impact on the game. Rice could then only watch as Jarrod Bowen fired a shot which went whizzing past him to make it 3-0 before Martin Odegaard’s consolation goal with the last kick of the game.
And the Rice sideshow deflected attention away from the real reunion hero in the West Ham win over Arsenal.
West Ham’s new £17m central defender Konstantinos Mavropanos was on the books at Arsenal for four years between 2018 and 2022.
The 6ft 4in Greek star only made eight appearances for the Gunners in that time. And he was highly rated by many of their fans.
As David Moyes is a stickler for drip-feeding new arrivals into the side, West Ham fans have only seen glimpses of 25-year-old Mavropanos since his arrival from Stuttgart.
But Hammers fans have loved what they’ve seen so far.
With all the focus on Rice and West Ham stars Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus and Vladimir Coufal being picked out for praise, Mavropanos was low key man of the match.
An absolute man mountain, he did not give in-form Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah a kick. And one particular moment in the corner saw him put the frighteners on the slender forward who clearly didn’t fancy getting into a physical battle with the Greek.
Get him to the Greek as new boy makes big impression
Mavropanos showed he’s not just about brute power and aerials, though. On the ball he was excellent and made a couple of surging runs, one of which saw him carry the ball 70 yards up the pitch to win a corner against his old side.
It was greeted with one of the biggest cheers of the night. There were hints of Rio Ferdinand about Mavropanos’ display.
Football data experts WhoScored list a player’s strengths and weaknesses using highly detailed statistics. The West Ham star has five specific strengths listed. But under weaknesses, it states “Player has no significant weaknesses”. It certainly looks that way based on what we’ve seen so far.
He has fully justified calls from West Ham fans for Moyes to make him a starter.
With uncertainty over an injury to Kurt Zouma, that may now be in the offing.
What a signing he looks. And at half the price West Ham were willing to pay for Harry Maguire.
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