Alexis Mac Allister makes honest confession about watching Arsenal’s defeat to West Ham | OneFootball

Some footballers might intentionally try to tune out when their title rivals are in action and wait to discover the result afterwards. Alexis Mac Allister isn’t one of them.

The Argentine was glued to the final half-hour of Arsenal’s clash against West Ham on Saturday, with a 1-0 defeat for the Gunners giving Liverpool a chance to go 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League just over 24 hours later, which they duly did by beating Manchester City 2-0.

The Reds midfielder spoke candidly about watching the all-London affair the day before his team were in action, and how he’d much rather have been able to affect that game directly rather than observing from afar.

Mac Allister on watching Arsenal lose to West Ham

As per The Times, Mac Allister had no qualms about publicly admitting that he was praying that Arsenal would slip up against the Irons on Saturday, although he was still complimentary about Mikel Arteta’s side.

The 26-year-old said: “Of course you watch the game. I did watch it when I got home, the last 30 minutes. You want them to lose. I think that is pretty normal because that makes our life easier.

“We have many games ahead which are going to be really difficult and we know they are a really good team who will push us as well. When I watch, I don’t enjoy. I prefer to play them.”

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Mac Allister and Liverpool need only focus on themselves from hereon

We’d imagine that all of Mac Allister’s teammates shared his eagerness to see Liverpool’s closest positional rivals dropping points on Saturday, although many wouldn’t be quite as forthright about it as the Argentina midfielder.

His comments shine an interesting spotlight on the mindset of elite players when chasing major silverware, with the 26-year-old not shying away from admitting that he wanted Arsenal to slip up and that he’d much prefer to be in a position where he could impact proceedings directly.

We suspect that he and his teammates might continue to have an eye on the Gunners’ fortunes over the next few weeks, but the Reds are in the enviable position of only needing to worry about their own business.

As it stands, a return of 26 points from their final 11 Premier League games would clinch the title for Liverpool, and that’s only if Arteta’s side win all of their matches. For many pundits, that’s already too big of a gap for the north Londoners to bridge.

For Mac Allister and co, there’s no need to become preoccupied with what Arsenal do, but rather to focus solely on adding three more points to their tally against Newcastle on Wednesday night.