A win is a win, and a clean sheet is a clean sheet, but no one at West Ham United is getting carried away after that Burnley triumph. Not Jarrod Bowen, and certainly not Nuno Espirito Santo.
Crysencio Summerville and Taty Castellanos scored inside the first 30 minutes as the Hammers moved to within touching distance of Nottingham Forest on the other side of the dotted line.
While the in-form winger and the January signing took their chances with real aplomb, at the other end of the pitch, Mads Hermansen justified Nuno Espirito Santo’s faith on his first Premier League appearance since September.
What a weekend 😍😍
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Hermansen pulled off a few ‘really good saves’ as Burnley looked to ensure lightning would strike West Ham United twice in the space of seven days.
The Hammers threw away a 2-0 lead to lose at Chelsea last week. That was the second time in Nuno’s tenure that a two-goal advantage had been squandered. In total, 18 points had been given away from winning positions.
No prizes for guessing the topic of Scott Parker’s half-time team talk, then.
Sign up for free here to tell us what you thought of West Ham’s win!Jarrod Bowen says West Ham United must learn from past errors as they survive Burnley scare
Thanks in part to Hermansen, debutant Axel Disasi and an imperious Konstantinos Mavropanos, Burnley’s one real spell of sustained pressure between the 45th and the 60th minute came and went without much incident to talk of.
Yet, captain Bowen feels that West Ham must do more to stop themselves being penned in after the interval. Losing points and sacrificing the initiative has unfortunately become a common theme of Nuno’s reign.
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“We knew how important it was coming here and to win today,” Bowen tells BBC Sport. “I thought we did a real professional away job. We had to ride our luck at times and defend well, but two really good goals and a clean sheet away from home is a really good result for us.
“Certainly, [Burnley put us under pressure at] the start of the second half. I think we can be a lot better at that. We saw that at Chelsea last week; 2-0 up, in a really good position, and we end up losing the game.
“So, I think we as a side have to be better at that, coming out of the blocks in the second half.
“But, you know, in a way, you expect a reaction when you are 2-0 up away from home. I thought the way we defended the box, I thought Mads made some really good saves, but on the whole, we played well away from home today.
“Of course, it was hard [to lose at Stamford Bridge in those circumstances]. When you are 2-0 up away from home against a side like Chelsea, the minimum you expect is a point, maybe. It was a real sucker blow.
“But the reaction today… We were in the same situation, you know? 2-0 up away from home. And I thought we hung in there. When you lose a game like we did against Chelsea, it’s hard to take positives, but I thought there were some positives, especially in the first-half.
“I think we were just trying to build on what we have been doing in the last few weeks.”
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In another boost for the Londoners, Nottingham Forest were beaten 3-1 by Leeds on Friday night. This means that West Ham can move level on points with Sean Dyche’s side in midweek. Though, in truth, the chances of that happening still seem rather slim.
Forest host a doomed Wolves outfit, while West Ham face Michael Carrick’s 100 percenters Manchester United.
“You know the results before you even play but for us, especially in this situation, you can’t rely on results from other teams,” Bowen adds.
“You have to focus on what we have, what we can do as a squad, and how we are going to get ourselves out of this situation. That’s what it is. We are still in the bottom three, but certainly over the last few weeks, we’ve picked up some good results and put in some really good performances.
“We have to keep chipping away at it. We have to keep fighting. Another game Tuesday night, so another really good game coming up for us as well.”
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