Michail Antonio: Everything went swimmingly against Burnley!


Everything went swimmingly for Michail Antonio as his goal secured West Ham United a 1-0 Premier League win over Burnley.

The No30 scored his first goal since October with a sweetly-struck ninth-minute volley from his close pal Pablo Fornals' far-post cross, which he celebrated by doing the backstroke on the London Stadium pitch!

A beaming Antonio, who explained the swimming was a forfeit for losing a video game to teammate Declan Rice, was delighted to be back to full fitness and back on the scoresheet.

One thing we worked on in the week was our crossing and the positions we needed to be in and it worked a treat today! 

Michail Antonio

"It was a very good day!" he smiled. "One thing we worked on in the week was our crossing and the positions we needed to be in and it worked a treat today! Pablo is a good friend of mine and we've got a good connection out there, so hopefully it can keep going.

"With the celebration, basically we were playing Call of Duty and the loser had to do a forfeit and that was my forfeit. I must have done it well, because everyone knows what I was doing, so my acting skills must be quality and maybe I've got a job after football!

"It's another win, but I felt going forward we could have taken more of our opportunities. Defensively, we were unbelievably solid, so moving forward I got a goal, hopefully I can keep scoring and do better and get more goals in the games, not just for me but for all the attacking players."

 

Pablo Fornals and Michail Antonio

 

Antonio's goal and a third clean sheet in a row helped West Ham rise to eighth in the table on 29 points - just ten fewer than they amassed in the entire 2019/20 season - but the 30-year-old says David Moyes will demand even more from his squad.

"We've got 20 games to go and we're on 29 points, and last year we finished on 39 so we can see the performances we are producing right now and the fact we can get a draw or a win from every game and we are getting stuff," he confirmed.

"This season, we are not limiting ourselves. We want to go out there, keep performing and keep doing what we need to do."

 

Away kit