Declan Rice has revealed that Jose Mourinho's pre-match comments ahead of Tottenham's trip to West Ham gave his side extra motivation to come out on top in the London derby.
In contention for a shock Champions League place despite many at the start of the season tipping David Moyes' side to be in a major battle to stay in the Premier League, the Hammers continued their excellent form with a 2-1 victory over Spurs.
Going ahead early on through Michail Antonio before Jesse Lingard doubled the lead, the visitors did pull one back through Lucas Moura but they could't go on to find an equaliser despite hitting the woodwork twice.
Now sat in fourth and two points ahead of Chelsea, West Ham also have a nine-point advantage over Tottenham ahead of the final few months of the season, although Mourinho's men do have a game in hand to play.
Speaking to talkSPORT about the win in east London, Rice opened up on what Mourinho had said ahead of the match and why it helped boost the players.
"I think I read during the week that Mourinho said, ‘at the end of the season there will be no comparison with where Spurs are going to be compared to West Ham, that we are going to overtake them,'" explained the England international.
"You read stuff like that as players, I think he said that on the Spurs YouTube channel, you read that as players and you think ‘yeah that’s going to make me go out there and prove you wrong’.
"You are going to go out there and want to put on an even better performance.
"All the lads knew that and we wanted to go out there and really beat Spurs so that’s one of the reasons as well."
When speaking in his post-match press conference after the game, Mourinho stated that his team did deserve to leave with a point after taking the game to the home side after the break.
"I think so. When you make mistakes you can say you deserve to be punished," he said.
"So when we made two defensive mistakes, especially the nature of the second goal, maybe we deserve to be punished, but I believe also that the way the team played with the ball, creating some in the first half, and creating so much in the second half, of course I think the team deserves a different result."
