Jarrod Bowen anticipates a ‘tasty’ encounter when West Ham United and Newcastle United meet at London Stadium on Sunday.
A return to Premier League action for the Hammers comes after a UEFA Europa League Group A win on Thursday, when Bowen helped the side to a 2-1 win away to Bundesliga outfit SC Freiburg.
Newcastle, meanwhile, head into this weekend’s league game on the back of an impressive 4-1 UEFA Champions League victory against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
Add both sides competing at the right end of the Premier League table, and Bowen expects an intense and enjoyable fixture.
“What a game it will be!” Bowen enthused. “The way Newcastle have played since Eddie Howe joined has been excellent, and they’re obviously playing in the Champions League now. For that city and those fans, that’s incredible.
“Sunday will be a tough, tough game. They’ve started the season strongly as well, but we want to win the match. It’s the last game before the international break and it’s another opportunity for us to get three points and push up the table.
“It’s always a tasty game when we play them because they play at such a high intensity. They always bring a good away following too so it is set up for a really good game.”
As it stands, only one place and one point separate West Ham and Newcastle in the table and Bowen is pleased with the start made to the campaign by the east London side.
With 13 points from seven matches played in the Premier League, the 26-year-old is happy with a stronger launch than the one the Hammers had last campaign.
With five Premier League goals already, Bowen has been on fire individually too. It is form that has seen the attacker force his way back into Gareth Southgate’s England plans ahead of the October internationals.
He continued: “It’s been a really good season so far. That was one of our main aims, to start this season better than the way we started last season. Coming off the back of the summer, we probably looked at things a bit differently in that we’d won the trophy, and we want to qualify for Europe through our league position this season. That’s our goal.
“For me, I also wanted to start the season stronger. I’ve been doing that through my goals and I want to keep doing that, and keep setting them up for the team and for us to keep winning games.”
While Bowen is determined to help establish West Ham as a European regular, the No20 knows competition for those top places in the Premier League has never been tighter.
Nonetheless, the forward feels the ambition of the Club around him and truly believes in the Irons’ ability to secure European football once again for the 2024/25 campaign.
“The top ten in the Premier League at the moment is so strong and so open,” Bowen added. “You have teams like Newcastle, Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa, who have started the season well, but it’s also a tight league and every club has their ambitions.
“We know what we want to achieve. Since I’ve been here, we’ve been lucky to play in Europe for three years. With the size of the Club, the Stadium and the fanbase, you can see the direction that the Club wants to go in, to be European regulars, and I think that’s what the Club deserves.
“We’ve had two good years in terms of league position, and last season wasn’t what we wanted it to be domestically, but we still got Europe through winning the Conference League. The ambitions are to keep growing and keep building.”
