By Simon Leyland
Big Kurt Zouma is not a happy man and has warned his team-mates that they face a real battle to the end of the season, after failing to make the most of their chances (17 shots in all!) in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Villa.
The luckless Zouma was making his first Premier League start since mid-January having returned from a hamstring injury against AEK Larnaca in Cyprus on Thursday.
It has been a frustrating season for the Frenchman, who also underwent knee surgery during the World Cup break. His fitness and battling qualities are likely to be key to West Ham’s survival hopes, as well as our shot for glory in the Europa Conference League.
He is now back and finding himself as part of a squad which doesn’t appear to have the edge and bite necessary for a relegation battle,
The reality of this result is that a point was of very little use and with Southampton beginning to pick up results the Hammers need to get their act together very fast against some very difficult teams.
Zouma said: “It should have been three points. We played a good game, we had many chances to score, but we couldn’t [finish them]. But that’s football, we got a point, we didn’t lose but obviously, we need to get wins.
“That was their only chance as well. The only chance they had in the box they scored, and they made the breakthrough. It is going to be hard until the end of the season, everyone can win but we believe in ourselves, we have the quality and we need to show it on the pitch.”
