‘If it was me’…Alan Shearer shares honest verdict on Declan Rice’s celebration v West Ham yesterday

Add as preferred source on Google

Declan Rice scored and refused to celebrate yesterday as Arsenal hammered West Ham to run out comfortable winners in East London.

The former Hammers star scored a brilliant sixth goal for the Gunners and tried to play down the feat by not celebrating in front of the home fans.

Rice’s lack of celebration has split opinion really. Chris Sutton has said that the England man showed his class by not making a big deal of it, while others disagree.

And to nobody’s surprise, Sutton’s former striker partner, Alan Shearer, has said that he’d have been off celebrating if he had got the goal.

Alan Shearer disagrees with Chris Sutton over Declan Rice celebration v West Ham

Speaking alongside Gary Lineker on the Rest Is Football podcast this morning, Shearer admitted that the game is about scoring goals and that in an ideal world, he’d have liked to have seen Rice celebrate.

“When I saw it I was thinking ‘come onnn’. Look, I know what West Ham means to him but I’m not really one for not celebrating goals. You work all week to score goals. Everyone knows what West Ham means to him and all that so I get it, but if it was me, I’d have been away celebrating,” Shearer said.

Shearer would not celebrate v Newcastle

The former England striker makes a good point here and the game is about scoring goals.

But, there is no way that Alan Shearer would celebrate a goal against Newcastle if he’d have left them and then got back to St James’ Park and scored.

Everyone knows that Rice has a huge affinity with West Ham and the reason why he didn’t overdo it here was purely out of respect for the club and their fans.

It was typical that it was probably one of the best goals Rice will ever score. But he showed his class and at the end of the day, West Ham fans will admire him for that.