Jarrod Bowen is sure West Ham United will learn the lessons from Sunday’s Premier League defeat by Aston Villa as they tackle a busy period both at home and abroad.
The 4-1 reverse ended a four-game undefeated run in all competitions as the Irons paid the penalty for a series of individual errors at Villa Park.
Although Bowen’s sixth goal the season – a strike which saw him join Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah as the only players to notch in the first five away games of a Premier League campaign – gave the visitors hope in the second half, ultimately Douglas Luiz’s double, plus goals from Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey gave Villa a comfortable success.
The No20 says that result will hurt him and his teammates, but that they will use the disappointment as fuel as the east Londoners return to action at Olympiacos in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
With a Premier League assignment against Everton and a Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal – both at London Stadium – to swiftly follow, Bowen knows a chance to lay down a marker lies in wait.
Jarrod, it doesn’t matter how many games of football you play, the disappointment after a defeat never gets any easier to take, does it?
No, it’s not easy. But we deal with it and face it. It’s done now – obviously it was an awful day from all of us and it’s something you don’t want to be on the back of, especially conceding four goals.
It’s really disappointing and like I said a poor performance from us. It’s done now, the good thing is that there are a lot of games coming up for us, so we could have Sunday night to be down about it but Monday brought a new week.
We go to Greece in midweek before we go back to the Premier League, and like I said we have a lot of games to put it right.
The frustration was that we helped them a bit – we gave the ball away and they took full advantage…
There were a few mistakes from us and at this level, against a side like this, they’ll punish you.
We shot ourselves in the foot a bit and there were other aspects of the game we could have been better on too.
A lot to work on, we’ll review it going into the new week and look where we can learn from and where we can do better going forward, and be ready for the next one.
Last season when we had a bad result in the league, we won virtually every time in Europe, so it’s a big opportunity to get smiles back on faces…
When you lose a game, the next game you want to win, of course. You go into every game wanting to win, but when you come off a result like Sunday’s the main thing is to put it right in the next game. That’s what we’ll be working towards for Thursday.
Then after Olympiacos we have four home games in a couple of weeks. That’s a massive chance to put a run together?
Ever since I’ve been here, the fans and the away support, you can never question their loyalty and passion for this Club – and that’s what makes it so special to play for this Club.
Like you said there are a lot of games coming up – away days, home games and we’re all in this together through the great times and the bad times.
Sunday was one of those bad times and we as players take it on the chin. Of course the fans are going to be disappointed and we share that disappointment, but the main thing is now we rally on, put in positive performances and get results.
