Tomáš Souček could barely have asked for a better 30th birthday present than his opening goal that helped power West Ham United to a 2-0 win over Leicester City in the Premier League.
The Czech Republic international was on target for the 38th time in Claret and Blue, since his January 2020 arrival from Slavia Prague, tapping home from close range in the 21st minute after Mohammed Kudus was denied by Mads Hermansen, to set the Hammers on their way.
Incredibly, of those 38 strikes, only two have come in defeats, while Souček now boasts 33 goals in the English top-flight, moving up to joint-seventh in the all-time Irons ranks, alongside Andy Carroll.
On paper then, no-one in east London should have been surprised when our No28 pounced to make it 1-0, or that the three points were secured when Jarrod Bowen’s cross-shot was diverted into his own net by Foxes defender Jannik Vestergaard close to half-time.
“This is a great birthday gift for me - I couldn’t wish for anything more,” Souček said.
“I always want to be important on the pitch, and with the goals as well, so I always try to score. Then, I try to defend the result in the rest of the game, to make sure we come out on top.
“I always trust the ball can come to me, even though there was already a big chance [for Kudus]. I could just stay on the spot, and maybe celebrate a different goal at times, but I trust the ball can bounce to me, and that’s what happened today. I always believe, and that’s why I scored the goal.
“It’s a great way to celebrate, and I look forward to celebrating my birthday more with my family tomorrow. They didn’t come tonight because it was a late game, but I’m excited to see my two daughters and my wife because they said they’re planning something, and they are the most important thing to me.”
While Souček scoring was something of a familiar sight, he explained why there was no sign of his usual celebration under the London Stadium lights.
He said: “It didn’t think my normal helicopter celebration was the right thing to do, because of what happened to the Leicester owner [after West Ham’s Premier League match at King Power Stadium on 27 October 2018].
“I wanted to celebrate my goal with my team, but I also wanted to show respect to our opponents.”
The result saw the Irons record back-to-back Premier League triumphs for the first time since March 2024, in the wake of Saturday’s incredible success at Arsenal, and with eleven games of the campaign to go, Graham Potter’s men are eyeing a run of consistency.
With no fixture this weekend, West Ham next face a home clash against Newcastle on 10 March and an away trip to Everton five days later, ahead of the next international break, and Souček has already set himself and his teammates an exciting end-of-season challenge.
He added: “This win is so important, because Saturday was great, and we all celebrated, but we knew that we needed to improve our consistency. Before, sometimes we won a game, but then had a very bad game afterwards.
“So, we needed consistency, and that’s what we got from the first minute. The first half was especially good - we controlled the game, and we could have scored even more goals. In the second half, things slowed down, but 2-0, and six points from the last two games, is a great result.
“We have two games to go until the international break, and the table is quite difficult, but a target for us now is to try and finish above Tottenham!
“We’ll be aiming to finish as high as possible. We will believe and trust in ourselves in every game, and think we can win three points every time. Hopefully that can build excitement for beyond this season, as well.”
