David Moyes hopes West Ham have turned a corner after finally beating bogey side Brentford 4-2.
On a night of firsts, Jarrod Bowen scored a first career hat-trick to ease the pressure on boss Moyes after a rotten run of eight matches without a win.
His team won their first match of 2024, with Bowen scoring his first goals since before Christmas and becoming the first Hammers player to hit a treble at the London Stadium.
Matchweek 26 ✅ pic.twitter.com/mk2yWR9qCQ
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 26, 2024
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It means West Ham, for all the talk of their poor form and Moyes’ future, are back up to eighth and in the mix for Europe again.
“Most teams have difficult periods in the Premier League. Manchester City have, Liverpool have, so West Ham are certainly going to be no different,” said Moyes.
“We’ve struggled to get our best team out, but overall if we can get our better players out there we can compete with most teams.”
Bowen scored twice inside the opening seven minutes before Neal Maupay pulled one back for the Bees, who had beaten West Ham in all five of their previous Premier League meetings.
Bowen headed his third midway through the second half and Emerson Palmieri hit a 20-yard rocket before Yoane Wissa pulled another back.
Bringing home the match ball ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/eUmy9FekDV
— West Ham United (@WestHam) February 26, 2024
“I’m really pleased for Jarrod, his performances have gone unnoticed as we’ve not been playing well,” added Moyes.
“Tonight it happened for him, his all-round play, the way he was working, he was a threat all night and hopefully the goals will get him back in (England manager) Gareth (Southgate’s) thinking.
“If you can play wide and you’re a goalscorer you will be of interest to the international manager.”
Maupay was seen having a heated discussion with Hammers coach Kevin Nolan as the teams came back out of the tunnel for the second half.
“I actually didn’t know who the row was with, I thought maybe it was with the fourth official. I didn’t see it so I can’t really tell you anything about that,” said Moyes.
💬 "Individually, collectively, we didn't hit our level today"
Thomas Frank's thoughts on #WHUBRE@pensionbee pic.twitter.com/dXnspH7o0J— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) February 26, 2024
Brentford, already plunged deeper into the relegation scrap earlier on Monday following Everton’s points deduction being reduced from 10 to six, suffered another defeat – their 12th in 15 matches since beating West Ham at home in November.
“Today we didn’t hit a good level individually and collectively. West Ham hit a good level, Bowen was unplayable, Emerson hit the top corner and we lost 4-2,” was boss Thomas Frank’s blunt assessment.
“I need to watch the game back because one of the things we’ve been good at is consistent performances. There are very few games where we don’t perform to a certain level and this was only the third this season we’ve been below our level.
Asked whether the Everton situation had an effect, Frank replied: “Absolutely not.
“I think right now I’m very irritated with our performance, that’s the main focus.”
