Vladimír Coufal said West Ham United took great inspiration from the backing of the Claret & Blue Army in Saturday’s dramatic 3-2 victory over Chelsea.
The Hammers twice had to come from behind to defeat the Premier League leaders, with Manuel Lanzini and Jarrod Bowen striking to set up Arthur Masuaku’s late winner.
With another capacity 60,000 crowd cheering on the Hammers from the London Stadium stands, Coufal was quick to laud their influence on another eye-catching result for his side.
“I have to praise everyone who came here,” he said. "It was unbelievable and hopefully we gave them a pleasant Saturday.
“The support from the stands was unbelievable and when we scored the third goal and I heard that noise, I knew we couldn’t lose the game.”
As for the action on the pitch, Coufal felt it was the reverse of their 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion in midweek, when a lack of a clinical touch cost them. That was not the case against Chelsea.
“I said after Brighton that we lost two huge points, but on Saturday we got a massive, massive three points against a big team,” he continued.
“We beat the first team in the table so we enjoyed it in the changing room.
“Of course it was a show of the team’s character. We had a few injuries during the game, unexpected injuries and hopefully the guys will be healthy as soon as possible and it’s nothing serious, but we showed huge character and turned the game on our side.
“We created many chances against Brighton but we didn’t score. Today we scored from almost every chance. Sometimes football is like this.
“You need to be productive to deliver this result against Chelsea, you need to be a little bit lucky and you need to play well without mistakes. That’s what we did.”