Nottingham Forest evidently weren’t reading the script: Their admirable point won at Manchester City took the gloss off the night but West Ham have now caught ‘Forest and are just one point behind Tottenham. The relegation battle is wide open with everything to play for ahead of the next nine games.
Crysencio Summerville’s superb goal may have won him the man of the match award, but West Ham’s captain Jarrod Bowen deserves enormous credit for the chasing, tackling and winning the ball to lay on the assist for Summerville’s winner.
Bowen was tireless throughout and hopefully answered those critics calling for him to be dropped. Still running at the 100 minute mark, West Ham’s hard working skipper could have grabbed a goal on another night but surely laid to rest any talk of him carrying an injury: Either that or he really is a superhero to put in a shift like that whilst injured.
Holding off Fulham’s best efforts for ten minutes of added time – even the officials, it seems, were doing their best to thwart Nuno’s men – means that those three points could be truly season defining. The recent cave – ins and capitulations late on were forgotten as finally West Ham stood firm and defended for their lives.
Bowen, speaking after the game claimed it was the QPR FA Cup win that changed their season: Last night’s game has given the Hammers renewed momentum after the Liverpool fiasco and has the ‘great escape 2.0‘ firmly back on track. There’s ten days now to sit and look at that Premier League table which looks a whole lot better than it did six weeks ago.