David Moyes was left bitterly disappointed with his team’s point against Arsenal after racing into a three-goal lead inside 35 minutes only to be pegged back through two own goals and a late Alexandre Lacazette strike.
Despite the dominant opening half-hour, Moyes could not hide his frustrations with the result.
David Moyes said: “We played very well for long periods, Arsenal played well but are in good form, it wasn’t a great result after going 3-0 up but we showed we are up there competing with the best teams. It has been a long time since we finished above Arsenal, we have done our best to make sure they can’t catch us. Now we want more, I’m greedy and they are devastated in the dressing room at not taking three points.”
Jarrod Bowen netted West Ham’s second goal after some fast thinking from Lingard, Bowen received the ball after Lingard spotted him open and took a quick free-kick while the Arsenal players had their backs turned. The former Hull City man fired in a hard low shot that took a slight deflection on its way past Bernd Leno in the Gunners net. Despite a good performance and his first goal in nine games Bowen echoed his manager’s displeasure with the result:
David Moyes said: “We’re frustrated as anything. Especially because we started so well in that first 30 minutes and went three goals up. We should have put the game to bed, which we felt we did, but we dropped and dropped and invited pressure. We got punished for the way we came out in the second half. We wanted to start on the front foot again, but we didn’t and got punished for it. We put our stamp on the game in the first 30 minutes and got the three goals, then we had chances at 3-2, so we’re disappointed and frustrated [not to win the game].”
With an international window now upon us, Moyes will hope his players can move on from the disappointment and not let it fester across the two week break until the Hammers are next in action away to Wolves on April 5. The Hammers were deserving of their lead after they dominated the opening exchanges. Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek were all on target for West Ham in an opening spell that Moyes described as “as well we have played for a while.”
