JAN Bednarek says Boxing Day football is “just craziness” as goals flew in across the Premier League and admitted that Saints knew their supporters “expected an enjoyable afternoon in London”.
Jan Bednarek said: “I think it was an enjoyable afternoon in London. That’s what the fans expected with the Boxing Day entertainment, a lot of joy watching this match in tough times. We got the three points and that’s what we wanted and what we needed, we are happy with this. I think it’s just craziness (Boxing Day games), we just wanted to enjoy our football and that’s what we did, we just wanted to win the game with a bit of joy and that’s what came today and we are happy with this. We will take these three points and we don’t have much time to recover but we will do everything to be ready for Tuesday.”
Although Bednarek has been no stranger to putting through his own net more times than he’d like to recall, he posted his fifth Premier League goal in his 112th appearance at the London Stadium. He’d already became Saints’ first centre-back to get on target this campaign.
Jan Bednarek added: “I’m happy to help the team in the opposition box. It’s important for a centre-back to score a few goals in a season and that’s what I needed. I’m happy with that and to improve this aspect. But we have to keep on going, to build up momentum, hopefully we will get another three points on Tuesday.”
Despite showing the fight required to pick up maximum points against a West Ham side that are targeting back-to-back European qualifications under David Moyes, a few points of concern were raised. Notably, the second-half tendency to ship silly goals continued with Michail Antonio and Said Benrahma both bagging equalisers, and looked like they were to add to the 16 points dropped from winning positions already this season.
Jan Bednarek said: “I think just the opposition have enough quality to create the chances and take them. Every team in the Premier League has the quality and sometimes we can’t avoid for them to create chances and to create goals. It is what it is, thankfully today we scored more than them and got the three points.”