Alphonse Areola believes confidence has grown at West Ham United after bouncing back from a disappointing start to the season.
The Irons began the 2022/23 campaign with three Premier League defeats without scoring a single goal and would pick up just four points from seven games before the September international break.
Four straight wins in the Europa Conference League somewhat cushioned the blow, but sitting in the bottom three domestically was certainly a cause for some concern.
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However, West Ham picked up back-to-back wins in the Premier League and in Europe since returning from the international break. A 2-0 win at home against Wolves was followed by a 1-0 victory in Belgium against Anderlecht in the Europa Conference League, with the Hammers comfortably sitting five points ahead atop Group B.
Areola has played in all five Europa Conference League fixtures so far and has made one substitute appearance in the Premier League, coming off the bench to replace the injured Lukasz Fabianski in the opening-day defeat against Manchester City. Ahead of facing his former club Fulham, the Frenchman says West Ham need to continue on the current path they are on.
Areola told the West Ham club website: “We’re on a pretty positive run at the moment, so it’s up to us to keep the momentum, and go and win now on Sunday against Fulham.
“It was a fairly close game on Thursday [against Anderlecht], with not many opportunities, but the substitutions made the difference. They came in very well, we were already settled into the game and they gave us that little bit extra.”
David Moyes made a triple substitution with just over 20 minutes remaining in Brussels in midweek, taking off Manuel Lanzini, Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio for Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca. It was the latter who would provide the winner late on, with Scamacca netting his second Conference League goal in three games.
West Ham’s fifth straight win in the competition can be owed to Areola’s save to deny Wolves loanee Fabio Silva from point-blank range just minutes after the Hammers took the lead.
“The save came at a moment where we were suffering a bit more. We started to fall back,” said the French goalkeeper.
“The end of the game. It’s intense. I saw the cross come in, I adjusted my position quickly and I was ready to intervene; Thankfully for us, it made the difference and saw us win.
“We knew they were a good team, so we had to be ready; we had to be ready to play a decent team, good with the ball. We knew how to keep the ball, we knew how to control it throughout the game.”
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