Honest Bowen blames the players

Jarrod Bowen’s opinions are as honest as his style of play – he doesn’t hide or make excuses but simply tells it as it is.

Today he is a very unhappy boy accusing the players of letting themselves down with a dispiriting performance once Arsenal played as they are able.

But he reckons the Hammers invited such a response when they took their foot off the collective pedal.

Yes, we missed our second half chances but on the balance of play we could easily have got beaten despite rushing into a great three goal  lead which looked at one time as if it could even be doubled.

Yes, Arsenal were dreadful defensively but we let it slip. They played really well when they hit their stride and to break through what has been a watertight defence three times in around 50 minutes or so explains their quality.

These are excuses as far as Bowen is concerned and talking om www.whufc. com afterwards he made that very clear.

He said: “We’re frustrated as anything. Especially because we started so well in that first 30 minutes and went three goals up.

“We should have put the game to bed, which we felt we did, but we dropped and dropped and invited pressure.

“You can’t do that for 45 minutes in a game and expect to get away with it. We got punished for the way we came out in the second half

“We wanted to start on the front foot again, but we didn’t and got punished for it.

“You have to pay respect to Arsenal, they are a good side and you know there will be spells in the game when you’re under pressure, but we invited too much of it.

“We put our stamp on the game in the first 30 minutes and got the three goals, then we had chances at 3-2, so we’re disappointed and frustrated [not to win the game].”

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