EPL: Big Sam bemoans loss

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce admitted his
frustration at his side's inability to maintain
their lead until half-time in the 3-1 defeat at
Arsenal.
The Hammers enjoyed the better of the play for
large parts of the opening 45 minutes as Matt
Jarvis headed them in front five minutes
before the break, only for Lukas Podolski to
equalise moments later.
Second-half goals from Olivier Giroud and
another from Podolski put the game beyond
West Ham's reach and they rarely threatened
after falling behind.
Allardyce was encouraged by parts of the
display at Emirates Stadium, but says that
they should have made more of their early
chances with Mohamed Diame guilty of being
wasteful in front of goal.
"I think that we'd done so much up to then to
get the goal - I thought we deserved it," he
told Sky Sports.
"I think that the one thing that disappointed
me was that we didn't create more from our
opportunities in the first half but we finally got
a very good goal.
"The key was to hold onto that until half-time
and then say to the lads 'going out there now,
there's more pressure going to come on
Arsenal and the home fans expect to beat us
today'.
"It preys on their mind a little bit, they've got a
bit of fatigue in the team and a few injuries.
"That would've been more pressure on them
but we released the pressure on them by
making two errors for both the goals and
allowed them to get in front.