The West Ham players were in buoyant mood following their thrilling 4-2 win over Newcastle and who can blame them.
It was the first time since 2015 the Hammers had taken all three points in their opening Premier League match of a season and it came against a team that took six points last time out.
David Moyes’ team showed great character in twice coming from behind and took advantage of their good fortune when awarded a controversial penalty in the 63rd minute.
After the match, Tomas Soucek was delighted to get his first goal of the season although the Czech midfielder was cheekily trying to claim two goals when asked if it was his or Aarons Cresswell’s goal in the first-half:
“Of course it was mine!” Soucek told WHUTV. “I talked with Cress about it and he’s a defender so he wants assists so it has to be for me!
“I’m just joking! It doesn’t matter who scored to me because this performance was great for us and how we played and how we kept the ball. Even when we were losing twice in the first half, we still played well and we deserved this win.”
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Soucek was pleased with the Hammers performance but the team will quickly put it behind them before they prepare to face Leicester next Monday.
“It’s a great moment because it’s a first win for us and we showed our ability and our confidence and we need to transfer it to the next game and I hope we will be successful.”
Jarrod Bowen echoed his teammate’s delight with the win: “To come away and score four goals and start with three points is fantastic.,” he said.
“Last season we started with a defeat against Newcastle, so it’s great to be at the top straight away rather than having to catch up.”
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Striker Michail Antonio also looked back to last season but pointed out what the team took from it when falling behind on Sunday afternoon.
“We showed last season that we’ve got resilience, that’s something that the Gaffer has given us, that we always believe in ourselves to come back and score goals,” Antonio said.
“We’re never beaten, we always fight back and always keep going,” the striker added.
Bowen pointed out the difference having a capacity crowd in attendance made and how enjoyable it was to see the away fans celebrate the three points.
“Any victory we’re buzzing with,” he said. “We knew it would be totally different with the atmosphere and we knew they’d have the crowd behind them. We fell behind but we stuck in there, and we knew with the attack we had we’d be able to put our chances away.
“Look to what it means to the fans – it’s great to have them back.”
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There was one negative for Antonio with the striker understandably disappointed with his penalty miss and admitted that he might be relieved of the duties and see them returned to Declan Rice as a result.
“I’m going to have to say sorry to Dec, because obviously when he missed his pen last time I bantered him and said maybe I’m on pens next. It might be Dec next now.”
https://www.football.london/west-ham-united-fc/news/newcastle-west-ham-player-reaction-21324036
