Mark Noble says that this weekend's relegation clash against Swansea will be the club's biggest game for some considerable time.
The club captain returned to the starting line-up at The Emirates last night but was unable to prevent Arsenal securing all three points with a comfortable 3-0 win.Within moments of the final whistle, Noble's attention had already turned to this weekend's encounter with the Swans, who are currently five points behind West Ham but just two from safety.
And he urged all Hammers fans to briefly forget the negativity associated with the current campaign and unite behind the team.
"We need the fans on Saturday for sure, all of them in full voice," he told whufc.com. "Let’s hope we can reward them and give them a little bit of something back with three points.
"In my eyes, it’s the biggest game we’ve had for a long time. We need to get the three points, simple as. We have Swansea and Sunderland in the next two and we need points in both of those games to ease the pressure.
"The group and the team are remaining positive. We just need to go about our business professionally in the next couple of days and pick each other up, ready to go again on Saturday."
Noble also defended under-pressure goalkeeper Darren Randolph, who many onlookers felt was at fault for Arsenal's opening goal last night.
"We defended so well in the first half - and then you get that little bit of misfortune," he mused. "A couple of players run across Daz [Randolph] and he doesn’t see it, that’s what happens.
"That goal really killed us and we couldn’t hold on after that."
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