Mohammed Kudus is a man who does not easily betray his emotions on his face, but West Ham United’s Ghanaian forward allowed himself to smile after helping shoot the Hammers through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
The No14 scored a wonderful second goal in the Irons’ 3-1 fourth-round win over local rivals Arsenal at London Stadium, either side of a Ben White own-goal and a rasping strike from Jarrod Bowen, as West Ham completed a deserved victory over the Gunners.
Kudus’s fourth goal in a Claret and Blue shirt came five minutes after half-time, when he collected Nayef Aguerd’s superb diagonal and put it into space with one touch, before shooting low past Aaron Ramsdale and into the bottom corner.
It was arguably the standout moment of an impressive performance from David Moyes’ side, who defended superbly, pressed with energy, unsettled their opponents and scored at important times to secure a morale-boosting win that ended a run of three straight defeats.
“It was a very important victory,” he told West Ham TV. “The past week had been very difficult for us, so to win and to win big and for us to get some balls in the net was important.
“Of course, we knew we were playing a very good side, so we knew we had to be tactically disciplined and very strong defensively. You could see we had to defend a lot because they had a lot of the ball, but we were still effective with the part of the ball that we had.
“Like I said, we knew they were going to be good on the ball so we had to be very compact and I think we did that pretty well and we took the chances we got.
“We’ve been putting a lot of effort into it in training, so it was good to see it work. There is a new game coming up and we will put this one aside and focus on the weekend.”
Before we focus on the weekend and a Premier League trip to Brentford, Kudus was happy to talk about his goal, and of the dream of lifting the Carabao Cup with his new Club.
“The pass was so good that I didn’t have to do much because it almost ended up being in the box, so I had to just take my touch inside and shoot, so thanks to Nayef for that wonderful pass!” he enthused.
“As forward players, you want to get the ball in the net and you also want to entertain the fans, so that’s what I’m here to do. Thanks to the fans for their support. It’s been amazing, and even when it’s not going well, they are still pushing and giving us energy.
“From the start of the competition, we’ve been dreaming because winning a title is part of it. We don’t know who we’ll get, but we’ll take it one step at a time and game-by-game.
“This is a very good boost for the game coming up at the weekend.”
