David Moyes hopes West Ham have turned a corner after finally beating their bogey side Brentford 4-2 in the English Premier League.
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On a night of firsts on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), Jarrod Bowen scored a first career hat-trick to ease the pressure on boss Moyes after a run of eight matches without a win.
The Hammers won their first match of 2024, with Bowen scoring his first goals since before Christmas and becoming the first Hammers player to hit a treble at the London Stadium.
It means West Ham, for all the talk of their poor form and Moyes' future, are back up to eighth and in the mix for Europe again.
"Most teams have difficult periods in the Premier League. Manchester City have, Liverpool have, so West Ham are certainly going to be no different," Moyes said.
"We've struggled to get our best team out, but overall if we can get our better players out there we can compete with most teams."
Bowen scored twice inside the opening seven minutes before Neal Maupay pulled one back for the Bees, who had beaten West Ham in all five of their previous Premier League meetings.
Bowen headed his third midway through the second half and Emerson Palmieri hit a 20-yard rocket before Yoanne Wissa pulled another back.
"I'm really pleased for Jarrod, his performances have gone unnoticed as we've not been playing well," Moyes said.
"Tonight it happened for him, his all-round play, the way he was working, he was a threat all night and hopefully the goals will get him back in (England manager) Gareth (Southgate's) thinking.
"If you can play wide and you're a goalscorer you will be of interest to the international manager."
Brentford, already plunged deeper into the relegation scrap earlier on Monday following Everton's points deduction being reduced from 10 to six, suffered another defeat - their 12th in 15 matches since beating West Ham at home in November.
"Today we didn't hit a good level individually and collectively. West Ham hit a good level, Bowen was unplayable, Emerson hit the top corner and we lost 4-2," was boss Thomas Frank's blunt assessment.
"I need to watch the game back because one of the things we've been good at is consistent performances.
"There are very few games where we don't perform to a certain level, and this was only the third this season we've been below our level.''
Australian Associated Press
