West Ham United midfielder Tomáš Souček felt his side’s fighting spirit was once again evident in Sunday’s narrow loss at Premier League champions Manchester City.
Manuel Lanzini scored a spectacular injury time goal for the Hammers, but earlier strikes from the hosts’ Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho meant the Argentine’s strike was just a consolation.
While Souček was frustrated his team’s efforts were not rewarded with a result to take home, he explained the Hammers could take heart from their performance.
“It’s frustrating. You cannot be happy when you have lost so we are disappointed with the result,” the No28 said.
“I think that we started quite well and we created two or three opportunities but we couldn’t score.
“We conceded the first goal and the first goal changed the whole game. We are frustrated but I’m happy that we fought to the end. We showed good spirit and I’m proud of the guys."
Souček and his teammates have an immediate chance to bounce back when they welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to London Stadium on Wednesday, kickstarting a run of three home games in eight days.
The Czech midfielder wants to take full advantage of that sequence.
“We won in the Europa League in midweek and went through, but now it’s the Premier League in front of us and we need to do a good recovery and prepare well for Wednesday’s game against Brighton,” he continued.
“It’s a big game for us and all of us want to beat them. It’s a great opportunity for us because we played three games in a row away, and now the opposite. We play at home and I hope and believe our fans will support us to the maximum and we want to give it back to them with results on the pitch.”
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