Michail Antonio

Antonio: On another day we’d have got the winner

Across Michail Antonio’s 200 Premier League games for West Ham United, he has scored a record-breaking 56 goals.

But he was just as happy to add a 28th assist to his tally on Wednesday, as his clever flick around the corner freed Tomáš Souček to score the Hammers’ equaliser in our 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

The Czech Republic international’s 55th minute strike brought his team back level after Thilo Kehrer scored an unfortunate own goal and earned the east Londoners a fourth point of the week.

Wirh Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen both going close to making it six with late chances against Spurs, Antonio admitted to feeling a tinge of disappointment at not securing victory.

Ultimately, though, he was pleased to take another step forward as the Hammers start to build at the beginning of the new campaign.

Michail Antonio in action against Tottenham

“For the assist It was one of those things that I improvised,” the No9 explained. “The ball came into me, I saw Tomáš running and in some way I had to find him.

“There were a couple of legs there, so I had to get the ball over them and it managed to get to him.

“It was a great finish too, a nice take on his left thigh and a great finish into the bottom corner.

“At the end we kind of got on top of them – they sat back and we kept creating more chances. On another day we would definitely have got a second goal but today it didn’t drop for us.”

Following wins over Viborg in the UEFA Europa Conference League and Aston Villa back on domestic duty, Antonio was happy to make it three positive results in a row.

Now he says the Hammers must continue to build momentum

“It’s a good point,” he continued, “We’re disappointed with a point because we thought we should have had three, but we’ll build on this because after a slow start to the season we got the win at Aston Villa at the weekend and another point today, so let’s keep picking the points up and see where we go.

“You need to get the points on the board as early as possible in the Premier League. Obviously losing three games on the bounce made it difficult for us, so getting the three points on Sunday and another one today just gets you up the table.”

 

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