West Ham United forward Michail Antonio feels that, despite his team’s final-day frustrations against Brighton & Hove Albion, they can look back with a measure of pride on the 2021/22 campaign as a whole.
The No9 – who earlier this season became the Club’s all-time top Premier League scorer – made it three consecutive seasons with a double-figure goal haul, rocketing home a left-footed shot from the edge of the box to put his side ahead at the Amex Stadium.
Sadly, however, a second-half Brighton comeback would ultimately condemn West Ham to a 3-1 away defeat on the final day of the campaign, in what was their 56th and final game of a busy, successful season.
A seventh-place finish for the Irons sees them qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League next season – the Club’s first-ever back-to-back continental qualifications through its league position.
Antonio reflected at full-time: “Obviously, it’s been a hard season with a lot of games.
“We wanted to get into the Europa League again, but we’ve got the Conference League, and we’ve got to take all the positives that we can so that hopefully, next year, we can win that.
“It’s been a great season because we’ve got into the UEFA Europa League semi-finals but still qualified for Europe next year.
“Obviously we’re annoyed right now, because we wanted to achieve something else today and get Europa League instead of Conference, but it’s one of those things where, as we go away for our holidays and look back over the season, we’ll think it’s been a good season.”
