MY ACCOUNT
Jarrod Bowen’s brace moved West Ham into fourth place in the Premier League after beating Norwich 2-0.
The Hammers went in front nine minutes before the break when Bowen’s cross went all the way in.
But a VAR check deemed Nikola Vlasic to be in an offside position and interfering with play, and the goal was ruled out.
Bowen got the opener just six minutes later, nipping in to head Vladimir Coufal’s superb cross past Tim Krul from close range.
It seemed Bowen had been denied for a second time late on after he tucked home Arthur Masuaku’s low cross. This time the VAR check ruled him onside and the goal stood.
The former Hull winger admitted he was disappointed to miss out on a hat-trick, but focused on the positives after a third consecutive Premier League win.
He said: “It was a good performance. Norwich are fighting for points. We had to put the barricades up a little bit but with our attacking threat, we’ve always got a goal in us.
“It would have been nice to get a hat-trick but to get two goals, three points and a clean sheet is good enough.
“We hit a bit of a rough patch and we were disappointed with our performances but that shows the standards we have set ourselves.
“We look like we’re over that and we’ve got that winning feeling which is nice. We’ll just keep going about our business.”
Did you know?
West Ham have won each of their last three league matches, having only won one of their seven before this (D2 L4).
Norwich have scored just eight goals in 20 Premier League games this season; in English top-flight history, only Leicester City in 1977-78 have ever scored as few in their opening 20 matches of a campaign (also eight).
Norwich have failed to score in each of their last six Premier League games, now their outright longest ever consecutive run of league matches without scoring since they joined the Football League in 1920.
West Ham have won each of their last three league meetings with Norwich; they had only won three of their previous 17 league games against the Canaries before this (D8 L6).
Norwich boss Dean Smith has never beaten West Ham as a manager in six attempts (D2 L4); in his 552-game managerial career in all competitions, this is the most he has faced a single opponent without ever winning.
West Ham’s Bowen has been directly involved in 16 goals in all competitions this season (eight goals, eight assists), the most of any English player at a Premier League club in 2021-22.
Bowen scored his 13th and 14th Premier League goals for West Ham tonight, while his opener was the first of those to be headed. Indeed, all six of the Hammers’ headed goals in the competition this season have been scored by different players (Said Benrahma, Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma, Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio, Bowen).
West Ham goalkeeper Fabianski made his 300th Premier League appearance tonight (32 for Arsenal, 149 for Swansea City, 119 for the Hammers), becoming the first Polish player to reach that total in the competition.
