West Ham captain Mark Noble has defended his side for playing defensively as they claimed a shock 1-0 win against reigning Premier League Champions Chelsea this weekend.
Marko Arnautovic scored the only goal of the game in the sixth minute which sealed victory for the Hammers.
Despite having won the game, the Hammers remain in the relegation zone and occupy 18th position on the League standings with 13 points from 16 games.
Their past two games however against Manchester City and Chelsea have proven that they can be competitive against any side in the division and is something that they can take heart from.
“It’s nice to go home with a smile on my face. I do like winning local derbies. Chelsea, Spurs, and we’ve got another one on Wednesday night [against Arsenal],” Noble told the club’s official website.
“When you play against these players and you play against teams like this that have so much money and can buy the best players in the world, you can’t just open up and match them up.
“You’ve got to realise that and you have to find a way to beat them. We found that way by defending, by counter-attacking and I don’t care if we defended for 90 minutes. We won the game.”
