Jarrod Bowen says that West Ham United will take a point against league leaders Manchester City after a gritty performance at the London Stadium in their final home match of the 2021/22 season.
The Irons found themselves 2-0 up at the break thanks to two superbly taken goals by the 25-year-old forward, but the league champions, who are fighting to secure their second title in succession, fought back in the second half through a deflected strike from Jack Grealish and a Vladimír Coufal own goal to draw.
Bowen, who notched his 17th and 18th goals of the season in all competitions, was disappointed that the team weren’t able to hold on for the victory, but still happy to take a point from the title hopefuls.
“It was a good game, especially the first half where we really executed the gameplan perfectly,” Bowen told West Ham TV.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed to concede a two-goal lead, but you’ve also got to look at it on the other hand – the opposition that we’re up against, league leaders at the moment and they’re a world class team.
“We knew that they’d have a reaction and come back into the game. We’ll take the point in the end because we’re up against a superb team.”
Bowen, who has been sensational throughout the season, took both of his goals superbly, and nearly had a hat trick in the second half, but his effort was well blocked by Aymeric Laporte.
And the forward explained that the team had worked on running in behind Pep Guardiola’s backline during the lead-up to the game, which is how Bowen’s two goals came about.
“We knew before the game we’d be able to get in behind by timing our runs, that’s one of the things that we worked on, then it was about me keeping my cool in front of goal.
“I thought I’d missed the first one, and I had the chance to get the third but it was blocked - I’ll take getting two goals against this team today.”
Bowen was also quick to heap praise on fellow teammate, Łukasz Fabiański, who denied Riyad Mahrez from the spot with the game poised at two apiece.
“It's another penalty save for him, one against Jorginho and now one against Mahrez, he made a couple of great saves in the game as well," Bowen added.
"I think everyone in the team was superb, the way we worked and the way we defended as well, we knew that we were going to be without the ball a lot but I thought we did really well.”
It was a special occasion as the Club said goodbye to Mark Noble, who was playing in his 549th game for the Hammers, and his final one in front of the West Ham United faithful.
Bowen was pleased that the team were able to avoid defeat on his special day.
“We didn't want to lose the game for Nobes today, but I think the whole day today was about him," the No20 concluded.
“You saw the send-off at the end and just the way the fans adore him and us players do as well, you can speak about how much it means.
"I think everyone knows how much it means but you know, just what a guy!”
