David Moyes has said West Ham are not motivated by helping former captain Declan Rice win the Premier League this weekend.
Rice departed West Ham to sign for Arsenal in a £105m club-record deal last summer and is in contention to win the Premier League heading into the final weekend. Arsenal trail Manchester City by two points, but will be crowned champions with victory over Everton if City fail to beat West Ham.
Ahead of the final day, Moyes was asked whether West Ham had additional motivation to earn an upset result at Manchester City but said his side are focused only on themselves.
“No! No. Everybody here loves Declan, everybody will remember him, but we’re not doing it for Declan, we’re doing it for ourselves,” Moyes said at his pre-match press conference.
“We need to try to do the best that we can and concentrate, to focus on what we’re doing, and hopefully it works.”
Moyes will take charge of West Ham for the final time this weekend and was asked on his side’s chances of upsetting Manchester City’s title dream.
“Football is a strange game, you never know what moments are going to give you the opportunity to win, and we have to try to take those opportunities when we can.
“Let’s be fair, it’s difficult to win against Manchester City at any time, especially when they know that they’ve got to win the game to secure the championship. That puts us under pressure because of what Manchester City can do but also put them under pressure as well.
“We have to try to do everything we can – try to play the game, concentrate on ourselves. We’re not playing to make Manchester City lose the Premier League and we’re not playing to make Arsenal win the Premier League.
“We’re playing for West Ham and we’re trying to win the game for West Ham. We can’t finish lower than ninth, which is a really good league position for West Ham in lots of ways. The players and ourselves are really pleased with that situation, that no matter what the situation, we’re in a really strong position.”
