For Craig Dawson, Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Aston Villa was testament to the hard work his West Ham United team put into the London Stadium contest.
Not just the graft they gave for the 90 minutes on the pitch, but also the preparation on the training ground – particularly given the truncated period they have to build-up to games right now with their heavy schedule.
Second half goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Pablo Fornals ultimately saw off the Villans, for whom Jacob Ramsey’s late strike was nothing more than a consolation.
Dawson formed a strong defensive barrier with his centre-back partner Kurt Zouma, holding a team at bay who had scored seven goals in their previous two Premier League matches.
The No15 also caught the eye with a number of well-directed diagonal balls to the flanks, helping getting attacks started and following David Moyes’ gameplan to the letter, as he revealed when talking to West Ham TV post match.
“We were up against a very good side so it was a great win for us in the end,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of games, so credit to the lads. We worked ever so hard and got the win.
“Keeping on switching play was key today and I thought we did that very we very well. Credit to the wingers as they took the ball down and attacked them, so it was good tactical work from us this week.
“We’ll take confidence from this into Thursday. Credit to the lads and all the staff for today’s win. It’s all about recovery now and getting ourselves ready for Thursday night.”
The stand-out moment of the victory over Aston Villa was undoubtedly Yarmolenko’s 70th minute opener – a goal which drew an emotional response from the Ukrainian, his teammates and the 60,000 present at London Stadium.
Dawson was thrilled for the No7, who was playing for the first time since the Russian invasion of his homeland and has received great support from within and outside the Club.
“It was a massive moment [when Yarmolenko scored]," Dawson added. “It just shows [how much everyone is behind him] with the atmosphere when he came on and when he scored. It’s great for him.
“It was emotional for him and emotional for everyone. It probably doesn’t change anything for him but it’s nice to see him get that goal.
“Yarma is going to be very important for us in the coming weeks, so hopefully he comes on and does the same as he did today.”
