West Ham United’s Edson Alvarez feeling no pressure

Boss David Moyes turned to Mexico midfielder Alvarez after former skipper Rice completed his £105million switch to Arsenal in the summer.

The 25-year-old arrived for £32million from Ajax in the summer and has immediately impressed in the holding midfield role vacated by Rice.

“Do I feel pressure? No not really. In my first time in Ajax, I had to replace Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, but I never put this pressure on myself,” he said.

“I’m a different player. I bring what I can bring; my spirit, my fight, everything. Believe me, I don’t try to put any of that on my mind, I just want to show the people my quality and my ability.

“I know the responsibility but at the end of the day I’m doing what I want to do and what I want to bring to the Premier League.”

The Hammers have made a fine start to the season, lying seventh in the Premier League and on top of Group A in the Europa League following Thursday night’s 2-1 win in Freiburg.

“At the moment we’re doing good things in the Premier League and we want to keep going and fight for top-six positions,” added Alvarez.

“We’re in a good way, we have very good players and the team is very together as well.

“We’re working for that. The guys in the past showed already that they could win the Europa Conference League so why not? If we can keep doing what we do, then of course.”

Headers from Lucas Paqueta and Nayef Aguerd in Freiburg stretched West Ham’s unbeaten run in Europe to 17 matches, a record for an English club.

They face Newcastle in the Premier League at London Stadium on Sunday (2pm) before the international break.

*copy from Press Association.