Saïd Benrahma is hoping his ‘special moment’ at Brentford will help West Ham United build momentum going into Saturday’s Premier League fixture at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The winger dumped his former club out of the Emirates FA Cup at the third-round stage at the weekend, netting the only goal of the game with a spectacular long-range strike at the Gtech Community Stadium.
While Benrahma did not celebrate his 25-yarder out of respect for the Bees, who he represented nearly 100 times between 2018-20, the Algerian took joy, pride and confidence from his sixth goal of the season and hopes his teammates will do likewise ahead of their trip to Molineux.
“It’s a special match for me when I play in Brentford, and I got a great reception,” he told West Ham TV. “I started on the bench and when I came on, I scored. It was a very special moment for me, so I’m really happy.
“It was a good goal. I didn't ask myself any questions: I saw a space, I took it well and I was happy. I couldn't celebrate because it was against Brentford. I didn’t celebrate, but I was really happy inside. It probably wasn’t very obvious, but I was really, really happy!
“I’m happy for us. It was a match we had to win and we did. We’re very happy with the result and we hope to continue this momentum. We drew 2-2 against Leeds, we won here, so we must build confidence off the back of this momentum and take each game as it comes.”
West Ham’s Benrahma-inspired triumph in west London was the first in seven matches in all competitions dating back to a 3-0 UEFA Europa Conference League group-stage win at FCSB on 3 November.
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals meaning the Hammers had to reflect on a three-match losing run for six full weeks, and back-to-back defeats by Arsenal and Brentford on the restart, it has been a challenging time for everyone connected with the Club.
But the popular No22 insists that, having shown plenty of character and the ability to score goals in their two most-recent matches, things are turning in the right direction.
“It was difficult because we finished badly [before the World Cup], and we started badly [after the break], so we hope to reverse that trend,” he continued. “We have to have confidence in ourselves, because we are a very good team. We have to continue like this, work even harder. I think the wins will follow and we have the players to [do so]. We have all tools to do great things.
“Before it was black, now it’s become grey. Little by little, for [the situation] to become white, we need to win games, step by step and we'll get what we want, what we deserve, because we don't deserve to be where we are, because we have a very good team, a very good group, so let's hope that this dynamic continues. We must go and get those victories!”
