Noble stays grounded after crucial West Ham win
West Ham picked up a vital 3-1 victory over Southampton on Saturday but skipper Mark Noble says they still have plenty of work to do.
There were plenty of positives to take from the win as January buy Jarrod Bowen opened his account for West Ham on his first start, big money summer capture Sebastien Haller ended an eight-game goalless drought and Michail Antonio was on target as he grabbed just his second Premier League goal of the season.
The Hammers climbed out of the drop zone and moved up to 16th spot thanks to the victory over Saints at the London Stadium. However, only a superior goal difference to Watford and Bournemouth immediately below them is keeping them out of the bottom three.
Noble was understandably delighted with the win but he is refusing to get too carried away. The midfielder is confident his side have the quality and desire to retain their top flight status but he feels the fight against the drop could run until the final round of fixtures.
“I’m hoping now, after the result, that we can start moving in the right direction,” he told the club website.
“We’ve still got a lot of tough games coming up and it’s still going to be a relegation battle until the end, but I do hope that we’ve got enough in the changing room.
“I believe in the players we’ve got in there. I think you can see that, and hopefully we can get ourselves out of it.”
West Ham have a tough run of fixtures ahead of them as they take on Arsenal (a), Wolves (h) and Spurs (a) before the end of the month.
The last four games could well prove the difference as three of their final fixtures are against their relegation rivals.
West Ham travel to Norwich at the end of April and host both Watford and Aston Villa in May.
