Michail Antonio is hoping to improve his impressive record against Chelsea when West Ham United head to west London on Sunday.
The Hammers’ in-form No9 has celebrated six victories and tasted defeat just twice in eleven career appearances against the Blues, scoring three goals and assisting two more.
Antonio netted at Stamford Bridge last season, when the Irons were denied an added-time equaliser in controversial circumstances when Maxwel Cornet’s goal was disallowed following a VAR review, and again in West Ham’s 3-1 home win over Chelsea at the start of the current campaign.
With such memories of hitting the net against Sunday’s opponents fresh in his mind, the 34-year-old is targeting another goal and another win over Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Victory at Stamford Bridge would lift West Ham back above Chelsea to eighth in the Premier League table and keep alive the Irons’ chances of qualifying for Europe for the fourth season in a row.
“To be honest, I’m just being in the right place at the right time and people are finding me!” he smiled. “I’ve had a bit of a run of form since coming back from injury in February, but the goals weren’t coming for me, but now the goals are starting to come and hopefully I can keep the run going.
“I still have my goal tally that I want to reach which I set at the start of the season. We want to finish in the European places every year, so our season isn’t over and we just need to keep winning games because we’ve still got an opportunity to get there.”
Antonio’s goals in last weekend’s 2-2 home draw with Liverpool and the 1-1 UEFA Europa League quarter-final second-leg draw with Bayer Leverkusen – both towering headers – were both set up by in-swinging right-wing crosses from Jarrod Bowen.
The centre-forward is a huge fan of Bowen, who has himself become the first Hammer to reach 20 goals in all competitions in a season in nearly two decades and looks on course to be picked for England’s squad for UEFA Euro 2024 this summer.
“Jarrod has been pivotal for me, to be fair,” Antonio enthused. “One thing I know with Jarrod is that, as long as I’m in a good space, I know he knows how to find me, and when he cuts in on that left foot, it’s unbelievable. Once I peel off that defender, I know he will put the ball on my head and it’s just for me to deal with it in the end.
“He’s an unbelievable player. He’s strong, he’s fast, he’s technically quality, he’s got both feet and he deserves to be in every England squad because of how well he’s doing. He’s managed to get 20 goals this year in all competitions and I couldn’t think of a negative thing to say about him.”
Antonio and Bowen will be key to West Ham’s chances of securing a rare away win in SW6, where Pochettino’s Chelsea have seemingly hit a decent run of form in recent weeks. The Blues have lost just one of their previous eleven Premier League matches, and won each of their last four at Stamford Bridge, but that one defeat was a 5-0 thumping at Arsenal, and Antonio is hoping Chelsea have another off-day this weekend.
“Obviously Chelsea are a quality team but, right now, they’ve been playing hot and cold and when they turn up, they turn up and play very well, but when they don’t, they don’t, so we’re going into the game not in the best of form ourselves, but doing alright,” he observed. “It just depends what team turns up on the day at Chelsea.
“Cole Palmer has been quality this season. He’s got 20 goals. He’s doing well, but their manager came out and said ‘we want to show we’re not just a Cole Palmer team’ and find other ways to win games. Hopefully we can keep him quiet this weekend and get the points we need to get to Europe.
“They’ve definitely improved since we played them in August. Obviously, with a new manager coming in, they had to find a way to play under his new ways and his philosophy. I feel that, as much as they have improved, they are still hot and cold and still working out his philosophy and working out how they play with each other under his regime.”
