David Moyes has apologised to West Ham fans for his side’s performance against Chelsea and made a shocking claim as to why things have gone so wrong.

Despite getting obliterated by Chelsea, not a single West Ham fan was surprised by the final score. Outside of the bottom 3, West Ham have conceded the most goals this season and the only team to let in more in the last 16 games is relegated Sheffield United.

Conceding 5 to the Blues would never be acceptable, but doing it to one of the worst Chelsea teams in years is absolutely unforgivable. Understandably, this could have very well been the final nail in the coffin for David Moyes as even the most supportive of fans have started to turn against him.

While in the past he has made repeated digs at the fans, he had nothing but apologies to offer after the full-time whistle. “The fans have been great but I feel bad for them,” he stated. “I don’t normally have teams who get beaten like this but we are lacking some ingredients – mental toughness and leadership to get better results, or at least not get hammered. The fans played their part and I can only say I’m really sorry for how it played out.”

When asked what has led to so many heavy defeats this season, he responded simply: “Declan Rice.”

“When you get the best midfield player in the country, protecting [and] limiting 50% maybe of the attacks. When you get that, it makes you a much better defensive team. We’ve lacked protection in front of the back four.”

Obviously Alvarez had an abysmal game, hence he was taken off at half-time, but to throw him under the bus like this is unacceptable. He has consistently been one of West Ham’s best players this season and Moyes has even stated previously that the Hammers are “better without Rice” – it just comes across as another example of him refusing to take the blame.

Disappointingly, it’s not going to be the ideal ending for Moyes now that European football is out of the question for the next campaign. Maybe a year out of Europe though may be ideal for a new manager to start this massive rebuild.