Mark Noble Insists West Ham Players Have Always Been Fully Committed After Crucial Palace Win

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West Ham captain Mark Noble has leaped to the defence of his teammates following West Ham’s first away win of the season at Crystal Palace last weekend, 90min reports.

It was the Hammers’ first win in the league in five games following a dreadful start to the season which has seen many fans and pundits question the commitment of the players.

Speaking to the Mirror about their slump in form, midfielder Noble has spoken of the pain and suffering the players have endured whilst on the difficult run.

He said:

“It’s not nice to pick up your phone and read how bad we are. People saying that we’re this and we’re that. I watched TV before the game and saw people saying how bad our defending was.

“That win was a little boost for us. Just to show we do care. We really, really care. The way we’ve trained, the way we are as players, it’s really important to us.”

After a successful campaign last year which saw the Hammers briefly push for a finish in the top four, Slaven Bilic’s side finished 6th, having claimed numerous big scalps throughout the season including wins at Anfield, the Emirates and Etihad.

With a new stadium ready for the start of this campaign, all appeared rosy for West Ham, however failure to settle into their new surroundings at the London Stadium, along with a poor run of results have turned the mood sour at the club.

Not helped by injuries, manager Slaven Bilic has seen his role at the club in jeopardy and will have been relieved to pick up three points at Selhurst Park last Saturday, which has eased the pressure for a short time at least.

Noble now hopes the team can put their poor form behind them after weeks of misery and start making headlines for all the right reasons.

He added:

“When you look at it, by all accounts we’ve had a terrible start, our worst in how many years. But we’re only a point now behind Leicester, who won the league last season. Start winning a couple of games and it doesn’t look so bad after all.

“We’ve had meetings as players, with the staff. We got hammered for going out on a night out, but since that night we’ve picked up four points, so is it a bad thing? I don’t know.”