the times | Thursday January 13 2022 2GM 67
Sport
No English player has been involved in
more goals than West Ham United’s
Jarrod Bowen this season, which will
only deepen the feeling that Gareth
Southgate could heed the calls of David
Moyes, the West Ham manager, for
Bowen to be selected in the next
England squad.
It was a fine performance from the
forward, the sort that he has produced
more consistently this season, as he
grabbed his eighth goal across all
competitions this season — in addition
to the eight assists he has registered. It
was an eventful evening for Bowen as
he headed home from close range, had
a goal ruled out by VAR and was given
another by the technology, chipped
on to the bar and also struck the post.
West Ham, who moved into the top
four, were controlled but slow to kill off
Norwich City until seven minutes from
time when they consigned them to a
sixth straight league defeat, all without
scoring. Adam Idah came closest for
Norwich when he tested Lukasz
Fabianski at the near post.
Bowen returned for pre-season the
fittest of any West Ham player, testa-
ment to the work he does running while
carrying weights in the potato fields of
his uncle’s farm in rural Herefordshire.
He says it is like running on sand and
has helped to improve the strength of
his ankles. He does not lack determina-
tion. He fought his way back when
Hereford United disbanded their youth
set-up and he had unsuccessful trials at
Aston Villa and Cardiff City. Liverpool
are admirers and should they call this
summer, West Ham would expect a
handsome profit on the £18 million paid
to Hull City in January two years ago.
Bowen thought he had given West
Ham the lead minutes earlier than he
did. He played a short corner and his
cross sailed into the net. The effort was
chalked off by VAR because Nikola
Vlasic, who may or may not have
touched it, was offside in front of the
goal. Later the call went in his favour
when he stabbed home Arthur Masua-
ku’s cross. The assistant referee flagged
that Bowen was offside but VAR judged
that Max Aarons’s back foot had played
him onside.“It would have been nice to get a hat-
trick,” Bowen said.
West Ham’s tally of 37 points is their
highest after 21 matches of a Premier
League campaign, eclipsing the 35 in
2015-16 and 2020-21. They have won
three straight league games after five
points from a possible 21 up to Boxing
Day. “We hit a bit of a rough patch and
we were disappointed with our per-
formances but that shows the stan-
dards we have set ourselves,” he said.
Moyes said that he felt Bowen’s all-
round play had improved and he was
more clinical in front of goal. He needs
one more goal or assist in the league to
match his combined total from the
whole of last season.
Manuel Lanzini took up an unfamil-
iar position as a holding midfielder in
the absence of Tomas Soucek because
of Covid-19, which indicated how little
faith Moyes has in Alex Kral. Inside two
minutes Lanzini found a gaping hole
and Bowen turned and shot too close to
Tim Krul, who trapped with his body.
Lanzini twice shot over the bar when
teed up outside the penalty area. Aaron
Cresswell returned after six weeks from
a back injury and showed what WestHam were missing with a peach of a
delivery that Norwich defended well
before being involved in their opening
goal. His deep cross was returned by
Vladimir Coufal, the other full back,
for Bowen. After the restart Michail
Antonio turned Grant Hanley and shot
over.
Norwich can’t buy a goal in the
league. Dean Smith switched to 4-4-2
in the hope it might deliver goals for his
side, who snuck past Charlton Athletic
1-0 in the FA Cup on Sunday. Milot
Rashica and Przemyslaw Placheta had
weak attempts on goal.
“We get battered from people outside
[saying] we’re not fit to grace the
Premier League, but we’re still only
three points from safety,” Smith said.West Ham United (4-2-3-1): L Fabianski 6 —
V Coufal 7, C Dawson 7, I Diop 7, A Cresswell 8 —
M Lanzini 7, D Rice 7 — J Bowen 8, N Vlasic 7
(A Masuaku 78min), P Fornals 7 — M Antonio 7
(A Yarmolenko 88).
Norwich City (4-4-2): T Krul 6 — M Aarons 6, G
Hanley 5, B Gibson 5, B Williams 6 — P Placheta 6
(K Dowell 66, 5), P Lees-Melou 6, K McLean 6,
M Rashica 6 (C Tzolis 72) — A Idah 6 (J Rowe 75),
T Pukki 6.
Referee S Hooper.
Attendance 59,775.How they stand
P W D L F A GDPts
Man City.............21 17 2 2 53 13 40 53
Chelsea...............21 12 7 2 45 16 29 43
Liverpool..........20 12 6 2 52 18 34 42
West Ham..........21 11 4 6 39 27 12 37
Arsenal..............20 11 2 7 33 25 8 35
Tottenham.........18 10 3 5 23 20 3 33
Man United....... 19 9 4 6 30 27 3 31
Wolves................ 19 8 4 7 14 14 0 28
Brighton.............19 6 9 42020 0 27
Leicester............ 18 7 4 7 31 33 -2 25
Southampton..20 5 9 62430 -624
Crystal Palace. 20 5 8 7 29 30 -1 23
Brentford.......... 20 6 5 9 24 30 -6 23
Aston Villa......... 19 7 1 11 25 30 -5 22
Everton............... 18 5 4 9 23 32 -9 19
Leeds................... 19 4 7 8 21 37 -16 19
Watford.............. 18 4 1 13 22 36 -14 13
Burnley............... 17 1 8 8 16 27 -11 11
Newcastle.......... 19 1 8 10 19 42 -23 11
Norwich............ 20 2 4 148 44 -36 10Premier League
Gary Jacob
Bowen’s star still rising as double
lifts West Ham into the top four
West Ham Utd
Bowen 42, 83Norwich City
2
0
Bowen watches as his header evades the dive of Krul to put West Ham ahead and on the way to a third straight league winADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGESAC Milan prepare loan
bid for United’s Bailly
AC Milan are considering making
a loan bid for Eric Bailly, the
Manchester United defender
(Paul Hirst writes).
Bailly, 27, has fallen down the
pecking order to become United’s
fourth-choice centre back this
season after the £34 million
signing of Raphaël Varane from
Real Madrid last summer.
Given that United’s fifth-choice
centre half, Phil Jones, has
suffered a number of injuries, Ralf
Rangnick, the interim manager,
may be reluctant to let Bailly
leave this month, but Milan are
ready to offer a loan bid.
Bailly is understood to be on
Milan’s shortlist to fill the gap left
by Simon Kjaer, who is out for
the rest of the season with an
anterior cruciate ligament injury
that he suffered last month.
United are braced for loan
inquiries for several other squad
members, such as Jesse Lingard,
Dean Henderson, Anthony
Martial and Donny van de Beek,
who are all unhappy about a lack
of game time this season.Millwall’s campaign to
stop missile throwing
Millwall have condemned
misbehaving fans who threw
missiles at opposition players
during their third-round FA Cup
defeat by Crystal Palace on
Saturday. The club are launching
what Steve Kavanagh, their chief
executive, termed their “Don’t be
a Tosser” campaign. Kavanagh
said the club could have faced
severe sanctions had a missile
seriously injured a player. He said
the club had also found evidence
of widespread drug-taking.Pogba’s agent Raiola in
hospital for ‘checks’
Mino Raiola, the “super-agent”,
underwent “ordinary medical
checks” yesterday, his spokesman
said amid reports that the 54-
year-old was in a Milan hospital
for emergency surgery. Raiola’s
clients include the Manchester
United midfielder Paul Pogba and
Borussia Dortmund’s Norwegian
striker Erling Haaland.
The medical checks “required
anaesthesia,” the statement read.
“These are planned checks, there
was no emergency intervention.”