West Ham United defender Aaron Cresswell has been presented with a special Premier League award after making his 300th appearance in the division in the 1-0 win away at Southampton on Boxing Day.
All at Rush Green - including his teammates, who gifted him a commemorative signed shirt - took a moment to recognise the incredible achievement ahead of training on Wednesday, with the 35-year-old having become just the second Hammers player to pass such a milestone.
Since being introduced as a 68th-minute substitute at St Mary’s Stadium, two further appearances in the top flight have taken Cresswell’s tally to 302, behind only Mark Noble’s 414 in the Club standings.
The 2024/25 season has been particularly noteworthy for our No3, who became just the second player this century, and the 26th overall, to make 350 appearances for West Ham, when he featured in the away win at Crystal Palace back in August.
With eleven goals in 359 appearances for the Irons as it stands, not to mention his UEFA Europa Conference League winner’s medal, Cresswell’s ten-and-a-half-year spell in east London so far has certainly produced plenty of highlights.
Indeed, upon his switch from Ipswich Town in July 2014, the Liverpool schoolboy, who made his senior breakthrough at Tranmere Rovers, enjoyed a hugely impressive first season under then West Ham boss Sam Allardyce in 2014/15, starring in every Premier League game and subsequently picking up the Hammer of the Year prize.
After featuring 47 times in all competitions during the last campaign at the Boleyn Ground in 2015/16, including completing 90 minutes of the famous 3-2 win over Manchester United, Cresswell was a mainstay of the team that battled relegation and COVID in 2019/20, and came out the other side fighting.
He was a crucial part of the squad that embarked on a three-year European tour under manager David Moyes in 2021/22, tallying 36 Premier League appearances the season prior to help earn a Europa League spot, before turning out on nine occasions en route to the competition’s semi-finals.
Cresswell quickly compounded the disappointment of being sent-off in the Europa League last-four second-leg defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt by playing a key role in the Irons’ Europa Conference League success a year later, playing eight times to help the Club make history with our first major trophy in 43 years.
Back in the Europa League in 2023/24, another six appearances, and an eye-catching goal against SC Freiburg in the last 16, helped yield a run to the quarter-finals, before the three-cap England international signed a contract extension with West Ham in June 2024.
And, with ten outings under his belt in all competitions this term, including a start in the Hammers’ last match at home to Crystal Palace, he is in no mood to slow down, and is looking forward to making many more memories going forward.
Cresswell was handed his award by West Ham supporters Jessica Donnellan and Simon LeFevre of Thredd, a Premier League partner linked to Oracle, who sponsor the Premier League milestone awards.
The defender said: “My role at the Club has changed slightly as I’ve got older, but I still love playing and it’s been amazing to pass the 350 Club appearances and 300 Premier League appearances milestones this season.
“I'm not getting any younger, but if the gaffer needs me for 20 minutes, if he needs me to start, or if he needs me to sit on the bench or in the stands, I'll be there and I'll give everything I've got.
“If I can do anything off the field to help the boys and try and get them in the right frame of mind as well, I'll be positive and do what I can.
“I’m into my eleventh season at the Club now, which is pretty mad! I’ve loved every minute of it here, and I’m excited to see what else we can achieve.
“I'm enjoying my time. I don't know when it's going to finish, but let's keep riding on.”
