Edson Alvarez is confident that West Ham can take positives from Aston Villa games but concedes that he must change one aspect about his game.

Replacing Declan Rice was meant to be impossible, after all he is a world-class player. Many West Ham fans feared the worst about what this season would hold without him dominating the midfield. However, Edson Alvarez has done a sensational job at alleviating these concerns.

Since signing from Ajax in the Summer, he has quickly become a fan favourite amongst the East London faithful. His work rate, tackling and even forward play are all absolutely spot on – the recruitment team really could not have done much better at replacing Rice.

While he has been a success in claret and blue, sometimes even he can’t stop fate from deciding the outcome of a match. Unfortunately for West Ham, that fate came in the form of VAR disallowing two goals against Aston Villa. 

Understandably, the Mexican was not all that disappointed with the performance on Sunday, but he acknowledges that he must cut down on the amount of yellow cards he receives. 

“In the end we were happy because we played a great game against a strong team, and we have to take the positives,” Alvarez told the official site.

I think it’s normal [to be frustrated]. I like to win. I am very competitive, obviously there is disappointment about the result. We knew that we could get the three points in the end, but the decisions are not in our hands and we have to move on.”

“Everyone draws their own conclusions [on their own performances] and I am very calm with my performance. I know that I am doing the best I can, I know that I can still give more and obviously the yellow [card] I picked up is something I have to learn, it is something that I have to improve on.”

Every time he steps onto the pitch, you can see the passion he has playing for West Ham and this certainly carries over to when he plays for his country. “I feel a lot of pride and a lot of commitment too [playing for Mexico].”

“I’m also happy to see my teammates, my Mexican friends. Let’s go change the jersey now, we will put the national team one on and do our best to win.”