Michail Antonio said West Ham United’s goalless Premier League draw with Chelsea ‘felt like two points dropped’, such was the quality of chances the Hammers wasted.
Antonio himself fired one opportunity over with his left foot and another too close to Blues goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga with his left in the first half, before Andriy Yarmolenko sent a stooping header from Robert Snodgrass’s pinpoint cross wide of the post late in the second.
The No30, who otherwise led the line with commitment and strength for an hour in place of the injured Marko Arnautovic at London Stadium, admitted he could and should have done better in front of goal.
I feel like it’s two points dropped with the opportunities we had today
Michail Antonio
“Looking back, I think I should have scored two to be honest,” he conceded. “The one on my left foot, I should have taken it differently, but it’s just one of those things where hindsight means you always think you should have done something different because it didn’t come off.
“The one with my left foot, I should have gone across goal, 100 per cent, while the second one was more of a snap-shot so the ‘keeper manager to make the save.”
Regardless of his own personal frustration, Antonio said the manner of West Ham’s performance against a previously perfect Chelsea would give Manuel Pellegrini’s team a further confidence boost following their 3-1 win at Everton.
The forward believes Pellegrini’s plans to create a forward-thinking, ambitious team are falling into place as the club’s nine summer signings become ever more settled in east London.
“It’s four points from two matches and that’s massive for our self-belief,” he confirmed. “It was just about getting us to gel together. We signed nine players and have a new manager, so it was always going to be difficult, but now you can see we have started to gel and the philosophy of the game we’re trying to play and we’re starting to put it on the pitch.
“I feel like it’s two points dropped with the opportunities we had today. We had better opportunities than them and they didn’t really have much to go off, so I feel it’s two points dropped, but we can take this performance into next week [at home to Manchester United].”