By Hughie Southon
Michail Antonio was quick to applaud the Hammers fans at the end of a brilliant display against Arsenal.
The home fans were also in magnificent form as the team rallied superbly from an early two-goal deficit to secure a deserved share of the spoils in Sunday’s London derby.
Two goals down and being outplayed the Irons then buckled down to show some of their best form of the season against the team currently best in the land.
And Mikey could easily have given the team and fans the three points they so badly needed when missing out with a header.
“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.”
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.