Graham Potter felt the Claret and Blue Army were appreciative of the effort his West Ham United team put into Monday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Chelsea.
The Hammers gave their all at Stamford Bridge, went in front through Jarrod Bowen’s superbly taken first-half goal, but ultimately saw circumstances conspire against them in the second half.
Bowen appeared to be fouled by Levi Colwill as Chelsea started the move which led to Pedro Neto’s equaliser, which in itself was only given after VAR Michael Salisbury ruled that a Chelsea player had not flicked on a cross into the path of Marc Cucurella. The Spaniard’s cutback was met by Enzo Fernández, whose shot was blocked to Neto, who drove home.
Chelsea’s winner ten minutes later was even more fortunate as Cole Palmer drove down the left side of the penalty area and crossed low, only for the ball to clip Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s outstretched left boot and spin over a stranded Alphonse Areola.
Despite being without six senior players through injury, West Ham rallied late on and Mohammed Kudus came within a last-ditch Tosin Adarabioyo block of grabbing a point in added time.
Speaking to West Ham TV, Head Coach Potter was proud of the performance put in by his players, including full debutant Andy Irving at the heart of the midfield, and also spoke about the boost the forthcoming return of James Ward-Prowse, the loan signing of Evan Ferguson and the return of injured players will give to his squad…
I think we can be proud of our performance.
I think you can see from the reaction of the supporters, they know their football, and I think the way they responded at the end of the game probably shows the effort the players put in.
The way they played, the performance level, I think was good. We feel a little bit unlucky with the first goal and I think that was a key moment of the game.
If we'd have hung on [to our lead] a little bit more, I think the [home] crowd was getting a little bit frustrated, but it wasn't meant to be. But again, the performance of the players, there were lots of positives there.
Sometimes [decisions and events go against you and] that’s life.
We have to deal with it and focus on the overall performance of the team and the effort of the players and the spirit of the players and the spirit of the team, like I said.
Understanding that it's very difficult to press high here with the quality they have and the space they have, I thought we understood that well, limited them to not too much, and they had to make a lot of substitutions to get themselves into the game, which probably tells you about how good our shape was and how the application of the team was.
Obviously, we had a big chance at the end with Mo to take a point. I think we deserved the point with the effort we put in and the application of the players.
It was part of the idea [to press them high and force mistakes and turnovers], a little bit.
Jarrod on the last line is deadly, so that was pleasing for us. Like I said, overall in the first half, we felt we were in a decent position. We weren't too stressed. You know the game's going to be one where they're going to push you back a little bit and I think we handled it quite well.
I think we want to improve, we want to do better with the ball ourselves and I think that's going to come over time.
Andy Irving has trained really well.
His spirit and his application and I think his training performances have merited that start. Obviously, we lost Edson Álvarez quite late [to injury] so we had to adjust.
I think the decision was clear for Andy because he's trained really well and I think it's important for the group to know that. I'm pleased with him.
James Ward-Prowse is a top professional.
He’s very popular around the dressing room, around the Club. I think that's important. He knows how to act, knows how to be. He brings his quality, brings his experience.
Evan's slightly different because he's a younger player but again, I think he'll fit into the group that we have. He's a young player that's got an eye for goal and a centre forward that wants to enjoy his football.
So, we're hopeful that those two can help us, help the group, and we’ll also get some bodies back and then the squad is in a more healthy position and there’s more competition for places. That's good for us.
As I said before, West Ham fans, they know their football.
They probably had a few bad experiences here, so I think they appreciated what the players did and what they gave.
The level of substitutes was high for Chelsea and that probably helped them. But overall, I think the supporters were appreciative of the performance, of the effort of the players and the spirit of the players.
