Former England Women’s midfielder Jill Scott has praised West Ham United winger Jarrod Bowen after his performance against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Hammers came from 2-0 down at the London Stadium as Said Benrahma’s penalty and Jarrod Bowen’s second-half volley earned David Moyes’ side a point, having gone 2-0 down thanks to early goals from Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard, moving them four points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Bowen’s second-half leveller saw West Ham earn a home draw against a ‘big six’ side for the first time this season, and his performance, especially after half-time, impressed former England Lionesses star and ex-Manchester City midfielder Scott.
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In her career, Scott made 162 appearances for England as well as winning the 2021 European Championships with her country shortly before retiring.
While she spoke highly of Bowen’s quality, both in his goal and with some defending work, Scott felt that Benrahma, who did score from the penalty spot, should have made better runs and also lacked the defensive effort that Bowen showed in the crucial draw.
“There was a massive change in West Ham’s game and I really think that Bowen was brilliant,” said Scott on Match of the Day 2 . “Obviously, as you’ll see in the clips that I think from the first kind of five/ten minutes, he’s really on the front foot all of the time.
“We’re going to show the goal here. I just thought that he was the kind of person that made the difference. If you look here, you will see the ball going over, it’s a great ball over the top and this for a finish, just to hit that into the ground. He could have easily hit it too high, but I just thought it was a fantastic finish. It was exactly what West Ham needed.
“Then here, you will see he has got the confidence to go one on one, could Benrahma have maybe made a front post run or a back post run, he does neither really and obviously, if you get at that back post, that’s ten goals a season. I think he kind of misses that opportunity.
“Then, we spoke about Benrahma obviously not tracking back, this is how you do it. Look at that from Bowen. It’s important to do the work going forward, but really, you have to do it going backwards as well. Here we see West Ham just really setting the tone, front foot, everybody.”
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