Andre Ayew says the valuable Premier League victory over Huddersfield Town proved West Ham United remain true to their name.
The Hammers went into Monday’s game against previously undefeated opponents sitting bottom of the table and seemingly devoid of confidence and belief. However, with Andy Carroll and Winston Reid returning after injury in an effective 3-4-3 formation, Slaven Bilic’s side were full value for their 2-0 win.
Having dominated the first half, the hosts went ahead at London Stadium through Pedro Obiang’s deflected strike with 18 minutes remaining before substitute Ayew made the game safe with a typically opportunistic close-range finish.
“We are happy for the manager, for the fans and for ourselves,” said the No20, who recovered from a minor injury suffered on international duty with Ghana to take his place on the bench.
“We are players, we are a team and we are together. Times were tough, but we needed to stick together and work hard as a team to make it happen.
“We’ve got the first points, so let’s work hard and try to get more.”
We are players, we are a team and we are together. Times were tough, but we needed to stick together and work hard as a team to make it happen
Andre Ayew
Ayew believes Monday’s victory will give the squad plenty of belief heading to The Hawthorns to face Tony Pulis’s resilient West Bromwich Albion side on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a good win and an important one for us, so I’m very happy to have won this game and hopefully it will give us a lot of confidence for the next games,” he continued.
“I just had to come on and do my job, to do something. I went away to international duty and came back, I had a little injury but I managed to be on the sheet to play and managed to get in and get a goal.
“It was good because it’s important for a player to score early in the season to help their confidence, so we can build on this victory and get more victories in the future.”
While Ayew and his teammates were rightly delighted by their first Premier League victory since the Ghanaian’s goal saw off Burnley in May, the experienced forward was preaching calm and patience when asked to describe the mood in the West Ham dressing room after Monday’s success.
“We don’t have to get too excited,” he said. “We’ve played at home and we won and now we are going to West Brom and it will be very difficult there, so we have to keep calm, work hard and be patient.
“Three points does not have to change everything. We know one week is different from another week so now we’re going to smile for maybe 48 hours, but we have to get back to work and prepare really well for Saturday’s game, because we want to get some points at West Brom.
“I think we feel relieved to have got the points. We’re not over-excited because we know we didn’t start the season well and we know we need to stay on the front foot and try to go and get something at West Brom.”