12 February 2023 , 10:21
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Declan Rice hailed the influence of Chelsea new boy Joao Felix but confessed they found ways to expose the Blues.
West Ham were able to claim a point at the London Stadium after falling behind to an early goal. It was Felix who opened the scoring with his first goal since making the loan switch from Atletico Madrid in January. The Portuguese star's quality has long been recognised, but he's often failed to produce consistently.
Felix was certainly on his game in east London on Saturday with Rice tasked with keeping the forward quiet. The 23-year-old has penned a new deal with Atletico, but will see out the remainder of the campaign with Chelsea, and Rice quickly recognised the calibre of player he was up against.
He told Stadium Astro : "I’ve played against a lot of midfielders and No.10s and the first 10 or 15 minutes today as a player you know a top player.
"The way he worked from side to side to get on the ball and find space he’s an unbelievable player. I noticed that straight away. You have to be really on your game with players like him."
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Felix himself bemoaned the fact Chelsea let three points slip away. They were good value for their early lead and had the ball in the net three times in the first 45, but two of their efforts were chalked off for offside.
Joao Felix scored his first Chelsea goal at West Ham (Getty Images)The forward said: "I think we did enough to win, but this is football and you have to accept that West Ham defended well throughout the game. In the first 30 minutes, we had the ball in the net three times, two obviously cancelled out for offside, but at this point we were looking strong.
"We created plenty of good situations and had many chances to score again. We have to accept the draw but we leave with the sensation that we could have had all three points."
The Hammers have dropped off notably from their previous two seasons, when they were challenging the established order and eyeing the Champions League. Now they're trying to fend off relegation, but were pushing for the win against their London rivals.
Declan Rice revealed West Ham noticed Chelsea's weakness shortly after the opening goal (Stadium Astro)Two of Chelsea's January arrivals - Mykhaylo Mudryk and Noni Madueke - were influential going forward, but struggled to track back and Rice cited that as an area where West Ham were able to enjoy some success.
He said: "With the team they put out they started really sharply, really quickly. They had some really, really good players on show. It took us a little while to get going and adapt to their system.
"But once we found out their weakness, getting the ball down the sides of them and realised their wingers weren’t really tracking back. We managed to get the goal from that and exploit that. The last 20 minutes was there for us and we could have nicked it."