Jarrod Bowen lauded the fighting spirit shown by West Ham United as they came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw in Nuno Espírito Santo’s first match in charge away at Everton on Monday night.
The Hammers went behind to Michael Keane’s 18th-minute header, but clawed themselves back level thanks to a trademark Bowen left-footed finish with 25 minutes left to play.
Our captain’s strike saw him make history - becoming the first opposition player to score a Premier League goal at the Toffees’ new Hill Dickinson Stadium - and while he led the charge for a winner, the likes of Crysencio Summerville and El Hadji Malick Diouf had chances, too.
Such a performance, and a fourth point of 2025/26, represented an encouraging start to Nuno’s tenure in the Claret and Blue dugout, and Bowen was particularly pleased to give the 3,000-strong travelling contingent something to smile about.
“I think it’s a big point for us,” said our No20, who has now scored 59 goals in 199 Premier League appearances for West Ham. “Our mindset was to come and get the win, as it always is, but I think that’s a good result.
“I thought we had some good opportunities in the first half, and that when we were getting balls wide and into the box, that was our best avenue of scoring, but then we conceded a well-taken goal by them.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming here, because they’re a good side and they’ve got a loud, loyal fanbase, but I always felt we could get back into the game, no matter how long it took.
“I think that’s been an important message in our group - that it doesn’t matter what stage of the game we’re in, we can create chances - because we’ve got so much quality in the team, and we did that.
“Our fans were brilliant again today - they were with us the whole way, and it never gets old celebrating with them, so hopefully they enjoyed that one.”
After only two days of training with new boss Nuno, who was appointed on Saturday, Bowen is looking forward to seeing how he and his teammates can build on the result on Merseyside in the coming weeks, with a trip to Arsenal next up on Saturday.
He continued: “I’ve been so impressed with him (Nuno) so far, with the way he manages himself and what he wants and demands from the team. I think we’ve all bought into that, and I think the performance tonight was a credit to him.
“We’ve played against him many times in the Premier League [when he’s been in charge at Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers], and we’re all excited to work with him.
“Everyone’s seen what he did at Forest last year, pushing for the Champions League, and getting into the Europa League. It’s not long ago that we played him, and now he’s our gaffer, so after tonight I think we’re even more excited for the future in front of us.”
A third goal of 2025/26 for Bowen put him level for the season with Lucas Paquetá at the top of the Club charts, in all competitions, and he explained how he was confident that that the likes of Diouf could set up a meaningful chance for him to get on the scoresheet.
Diouf was in fact one of a number of young players to earn minutes under the lights at Everton, with Soungoutou Magassa, Mateus Fernandes, Freddie Potts and Luis Guilherme among those to feature, and Bowen was positive about their contributions.
He added: “Malick and Cry linked up well all game, and Malick showed really good work rate to get down the flank and put the ball in the box, that needed defending. It fell to me, and in that sort of position, I don’t feel like I can be stopped, because I know what I’m going to do before they do.
“My Dad’s got an old saying that ‘the goal never moves, so you just have to get the ball on target’. I don’t know if it took a bit of a deflection, but if you don’t buy a raffle ticket, you don’t win a prize, and it’s come off today.
“The young players have done really well, and we have to remember that they’ve come in this season, it’s been a tough period, and they’ve still showed up every week, and every day in training.
“They’ve got the work rate and the mindset, which is credit to them. I thought there were excellent performances throughout the team tonight, and we just want to build on that away at Arsenal on Saturday now.”
