Jarrod Bowen has set himself a goals target of double figures this season as he got off the mark for 2020/21 with a fine brace in West Ham’s 4-0 thumping of Wolves on Sunday night.
It was Bowen’s first goals for the Hammers since his full debut for the club on February 29 in a 3-1 win over Southampton. While goals have been in short supply for the forward since his £25million switch from Hull City, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Bowen bagged four assists after lockdown as West Ham secured survival in the Premier League for another season. There had been questions over whether he could transfer his goalscoring exploits from the Championship to Premier League after he made the move to east London from Humberside.
He put those doubts to rest on Sunday night as he scored two very different goals. The first was a sublime finish as he cut inside from the right wing and whipped an effort around Wolves defender Romain Saiss and past the helpless Rui Patricio.
His second was a poachers goal as he was on hand to tap home from close range after Pablo Fornals’ effort crashed off the post.
The 23-year-old hit 51 goals in 131 outings for the Tigers in all competitions across his stay at City, arriving in east London with a goalscoring pedigree.
Bowen hasn’t struggled in the top flight, far from it, but manager David Moyes wanted the winger to add more goals to lighten the load on the likes of Michail Antonio - he did exactly that on Sunday night.
Speaking after the game about his target for the season, Bowen said: “I've always said double figures.
“I know it is going to be difficult in the Premier League this season but I believe I can score goals at this level. That is what I am going to aim for and if I keep performing the way I did last night I don't think there's any reason I can't get there.
“I was due a goal. When two come at you you're buzzing. The disappointment was I couldn't get on the end of the cross for the hat-trick but my first Premier League brace, buzzing with that.”
West Ham’s dismantling of Wolves certainly poses a few questions, chiefly why the Hammers can’t play like that more often. They did against Arsenal as well in defeat but were also absolutely hopeless in their opening loss to Newcastle earlier this morning.
West Ham’s squad, on paper, is good enough to survive comfortably in the Premier League but as we saw last season, they certainly like to make hard work of completing such a task.
Staying up this season will be seen as an achievement in some quarters, which it really shouldn’t be, and Bowen believes that simply surviving in the top flight should not be West Ham’s primary objective.
“You look at the players in the changing room and there is no reason we can't be pushing the top half of the table,” he added.
“With consistent performances like last night there is no reason we can't be up and amongst the top half of the table.”
