Wild celebration: Declan Rice scored his first Premier League goal for almost a year against Southampton
(Picture: REUTERS)Less than a fortnight ago, Declan Rice sat in the depths of Anderlecht’s Lotto Park and talked of his desire to start grabbing more games “by the scruff of the neck”.
At St Mary’s yesterday, with the ball refusing to go in for West Ham’s more likely goalscorers, he did just that, exchanging passes with substitute Said Benrahma and driving forward before curling a sensational finish into the far corner to earn a 1-1 draw with struggling Southampton.
With 26 minutes to play, there was no dash to retrieve the ball, no head-down sprint back to the halfway line, Rice instead knee-sliding in front of the away end to salute a true captain’s goal, his first since inheriting the armband from Mark Noble on a permanent basis and ending a Premier League drought that had lasted almost a year.
“I was due a goal,” Rice said. “I love scoring goals. It does not come around often for me. When I do put one in the back of the net, I feel really passionate about it. I love to celebrate with the away fans. The fans have travelled to come to see us. When I score a goal, I go a bit crazy sometimes.”
If the celebration betrayed a man who does not score often, then the finish did anything but, the net seeming certain to bulge not merely from the moment the ball left Rice’s right boot, but earlier, as he puffed out his chest and strode onto Benrahma’s lay-off.
Rice was not specifically talking of adding goals to his game when making that challenge to himself in Belgium — he managed five in all competitions last term, including particularly important ones in the contrasting settings of Lyon and Kidderminster — but Hammers manager David Moyes believes he is capable of doing so.
“Dec can do that, no problem,” he said. “It’s not that he can’t do it. If we can get him in the right areas of the field, he’s more than capable.”
The point was no less than West Ham deserved, coming on an afternoon when they mustered 25 shots but only four on target, and when Romain Perraud’s deflected opener left Moyes irate, coming after what the Scot called a “terrible” decision to allow play to continue despite referee Peter Bankes obstructing Jarrod Bowen’s effort to clear.
