Jarrod Bowen feels West Ham have finally got their season up and running after putting on the “perfect performance” against Wolves.
The winger scored twice as the Hammers thumped Wolves 4-0 on Sunday evening to get their first points on the board.
Defeats by Newcastle and Arsenal had left the club lurching towards familiar crisis territory, but Bowen feels they are now showing what they are capable of.
“I think without the ball we were good, with the ball we were good and that was the perfect performance – something we can build on,” he said.
“You look at the players in the changing room and there is no reason we can’t be pushing the top half of the table.
“With consistent performances like last night there is no reason we can’t be up and amongst the top half.
“I think in every game there has been a reaction. The first game wasn’t good enough.
“We reacted against Arsenal and were disappointed we didn’t get a point out of that game, and then we certainly reacted again last night which is good for us going into the fixtures we’ve got coming up.”
Bowen’s brace, either side of half-time, was added to by Tomas Soucek’s header – deflected in by Raul Jimenez – and substitute Sebastien Haller.
The win, on the back of a 5-1 Carabao Cup thrashing of Hull, might encourage manager David Moyes to continue working from home for a bit longer.
Moyes is still self-isolating after a positive Covid-19 test but was remotely in charge against Wolves, with assistant Alan Irvine taking over on the touchline.
“Since the Hull game he hasn’t been in, I haven’t spoken to him personally but I know Alan and all the coaches have spoken to him,” added Bowen.
“It has been a bit of a strange and different week. We’ve coped with it well and you saw last night that we didn’t let if affect us.”
It was a strangely subdued display from Wolves, who had beaten West Ham in all four of their previous meetings since promotion without conceding a goal.
“It’s part of the job, we have to go and work harder to find a solution. The players must bounce back and react to it,” said boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
“It’s about improving what we want to do. Now, we have to look at the game and the solution is inside. It’s about improving the players.”
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