Graham Potter hailed his West Ham United players for showcasing their full potential in Saturday’s hugely impressive 1-0 triumph away at title-challengers Arsenal.
The Hammers were worthy winners at Emirates Stadium, thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s 44th-minute diving header - the 50th Premier League strike of our captain’s esteemed career - and an incredible defensive display that limited the Gunners to just two shots on target.
Such a result marked Arsenal’s first Premier League defeat on their own turf of the 2024/25 season, and West Ham’s second successive win at the home of the 13-time English champions, following last term’s 2-0 victory.
For Potter personally, he has now overseen four wins in his five trips to Arsenal as a manager, and he was suitably delighted at the way his side left everything out on the pitch in pursuit of three points.
Having made four changes to the XI that started last weekend’s narrow loss to Brentford, the Head Coach spoke of pride at the way Academy of Football graduate Ollie Scarles - making his first top-flight start - helped withstand sustained pressure towards the full-time whistle, and record a first clean sheet since Boxing Day.
The challenge now for West Ham is to follow up such a performance and result when they host Leicester City at London Stadium on Thursday night, when all in Claret and Blue will be looking to replicate the sort of scenes seen at the Emirates at full-time.
I’m incredibly proud, and pleased for the supporters.
The players gave everything, and left everything out on the pitch, which is what we’ve been trying to instil and encourage.
When you do that, you’ve got a chance to get results. Talent is one thing, but it’s about being a team, and having a collective mentality. I think we showed that today in abundance, so I’m delighted.
I think it’s about being consistent for the full 90 minutes, and we were able to do that today.
The players have shown it in training - they’ve been fantastic to work with every day - and it’s hard to say that when you’re not getting the right results, because that’s what people want to see at the end of the day.
So, today is great because they’ve got the reward for their hard work, and that’s why I’m really proud. Coming here and being as disciplined as we were isn’t easy, and, like I said, they gave everything out there. In the end, it’s a great day for our Club.
We knew we’d be defending deep at times, and it was about how we could get out of that position and in spaces to attack, which has helped us get the goal.
We had some success there, and then obviously it’s about the quality of the players. For the goal, Aaron’s [Wan-Bissaka] run was great, and Jarrod finished it off wonderfully well.
We had defensive structure and togetherness to be able to give us a chance to win the ball, and then from there we attacked with quality, and crucially made it count.
Fifty Premier League goals is a great milestone for Jarrod.
I’m delighted for him, and I think there’s still more to come from him, certainly in terms of goals.
He’s been brilliant to work with. We had to be patient for him to be able to come back into the team when we came in, because of his injury, but he’s our captain and he leads in a really good way.
The way we defended towards the end as well was really pleasing.
They’re going to push you back because they’re taking a lot of risks at 1-0 down, throwing men forward to try and get the equaliser.
Even though they’re down to ten men, you’re facing bodies and quality, and we had to defend. The subs came on and did their best, and you need a bit of luck, as well.
But, I don’t think there were too many big chances against us, it was more pressure, and that’s credit to the players for the way they stood up to that.
His (Ollie Scarles) temperament is fantastic, and he’s got great quality.
He trains hard every day, but he’s a great person as well. He’s fully committed, loves the Club, loves the team, and he wants to play for West Ham.
He’s got a lot going for him, and really his personality is really impressive. It’s a huge thank you to the Academy really, because they’ve helped us by developing a top player!
It was a great feeling at the end of the game, celebrating with the supporters.
Last week was a bit different, but that’s the ups and downs of the job. Today was great because the players deserved the three points, and celebrating in front of the fans is what football’s all about.
It was a great day, and I’m just really glad we were able to deliver the win for them.
