West Ham centre-back Kurt Zouma hasn’t received a lot of love recently after the Frenchman was caught on camera kicking and abusing his pet cat. Since then, he has been booed by fans and has also been officially reprimanded by the Hammers.
The French defender was also dropped by his sponsor Adidas. He also missed last weekend’s draw against Leicester City after falling ill at the last moment. Quite expectedly, he was shown no mercy by the Newcastle fans on his return to action in the Premier League. In fact, this was his second appearance after the video went viral. Despite the outcry regarding the video, Moyes had opted to start with Zouma against Watford on the same day.
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The defender also issued an apology, but his behaviour was subjected to intense criticism from all over the world. While Moyes believes that the 27-year-old deserves a second chance, he was booed and taunted by large sections of the Newcastle crowd throughout the match. They also used large inflatable cats to distract him during the game and added a surreal touch to the taunting.
While West Ham fans have also created an unsavoury chant in support of the French defender, Newcastle’s travelling supporters responded by singing:
“Hey, Hey Zouma, I wanna know, how you kicked that cat.”
This was far from being the only headache as far as West Ham are concerned, however. Their fight for a top-four finish received a further dent as they ended up dropping points against the Magpies. Craig Dawson put the home side ahead, but Joe Willock scored his first goal this season to restore parity in the match and, more importantly, earned a crucial point for relegation-threatened Newcastle.
West Ham are currently fifth in the Premier League table, a point behind Manchester United despite having played a game more. Meanwhile, Newcastle are fourth from bottom and have a five-point lead over the relegation zone. They are unbeaten in their last six league matches.
