Michail Antonio shared his appreciation for the resounding support given by the Claret and Blue Army in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal, hailing the fans for their role in West Ham United’s stirring comeback.
The voracious home fans among the 62,475 in attendance at London Stadium more than played their part in David Moyes’ Hammers rallying from an early two-goal deficit to secure a deserved share of the spoils in Sunday’s London derby.
Gabriel Jesus and Martin Ødegaard scored inside ten minutes to give the Irons a mountain to climb, but Saïd Benrahama coolly converted a penalty with 33 minutes on the clock to get belief flowing around London Stadium.
After Bukayo Saka missed a 52nd minute spot-kick for the visitors, the Hammers took advantage just moments later, with Jarrod Bowen superbly volleying home Thilo Kehrer’s lofted pass.
Antonio himself went close to winning the match and completing the most incredible of fightbacks, striking the post with a header late on, and the forward was full of praise for the support shown to the team.
“I’ve been here for years and, at the start of the game, I could feel something was coming for the fans,” Antonio told Sky Sports. “We had to lift the game for them and, as we built on it and kept pushing, I think they could see that we had the confidence and the belief to take something from the game.
“I know the one thing these fans want to see us do is the hard work, to grind and to fight, and that’s what we did for them today. As soon as we started doing that, the atmosphere lifted and they were our 12th man today. I have to applaud them because they were a massive part of us getting this point.”
The two teams’ respective league positions prior to kick-off suggested West Ham would face a tricky afternoon, with Arsenal leading the way at the top of the Premier League table. However, after giving Mikel Arteta's side a two-goal start, the Irons grew into Sunday’s game and more than warranted a return from the fixture.
Antonio admitted Arsenal’s early goals came from errors but always felt the home side had the quality to take something from the game.
He continued: “Before the game, we said we could get something. We started the game well but there were two lapses and Arsenal got two goals. You get punished when you make mistakes. But we built on it and you could see that we didn’t give up.
“Declan Rice was trying to lift the boys and we were saying ‘let’s get a goal and we can build on it’. We won the penalty, scored the goal, and we built on it and kept going.
“We got opportunities and perhaps we could have even won the game. Obviously it wasn’t to be but we’ll take that going forward into the next few games.”
A unified roar of approval and standing ovation greeted the Hammers players at the final whistle, and Antonio is backing the side to take the confidence from Sunday’s performance into the final stretch of the 2022/23 campaign.
“Taking positives from the game, before it we would have probably would have taken a point,” he added. “It’s a massive point to get us a bit higher in the league. We’re now just going to grow from that.
“You can see the confidence that we’ve got, going from two goals down and managing to get to 2-2 against the league leaders. We just need to build on it and keep going.”
