West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen says they are ready to get back to Premier League action after the mid-season break.
Bowen, having missed out on a place in the England squad for the World Cup, netted in a 1-1 friendly draw at Fulham on Saturday.
And having also beaten Cambridge United and Udinese in earlier friendlies, with Bowen on target again, the 25-year-old is relishing a return to competitive fixtures.
“We have the preparation in the bank,” he told whufc.com.
“[Fulham] was a really good test, Udinese was a good test, as was Cambridge in the freezing cold.
“But we have come out of all the games really well. We have looked dangerous as well and today was a really important one in terms of what we are going to face.
“It is down to us now to go to Arsenal on Boxing Day and put in a really good performance.”
The Hammers saw Italian striker Gianluca Scamacca limp off in the opening quarter of an hour at Craven Cottage and fall behind to a header from Carlos Vinivius.
But Bowen, playing as a central striker, slotted home an equaliser after the hour to the delight of more than 2,500 supporters who braved the cold and rail strikes to travel to west London.
Tomas Soucek and Craig Dawson went close to netting a winner for the visitors, but Marek Rodak helped the hosts hold on for a share of the spoils.
“Someone said to me before the game that we had 2,500 and I thought no way for a friendly,” added Bowen.
“But that says everything about this club and the heart of this club.
“We know what position we are in. We can’t hide away from that. It is about us as players now stepping up and showing what we are about.”
Pablo Fornals echoed those sentiments, adding: “These games have been important for us to build up to Arsenal.
“We know it’s not the Premier League [in these warm-up games] but we’ve played against great teams and we’ve had good results.
“I think it brings us a positive mentality because we need and deserve [the results] after very good weeks of working hard.
“It felt good out there on the pitch. I think we did a good preparation against great teams. It was a big test on Saturday to play against another Premier League team and I think we did quite well.
“We had some really nice work, we tried to do what we’ve been doing in training and that’s the most important thing.”
*West Ham have confirmed a deal to sign promising Brazilian defender Luizao
The 20-year-old will join next month, subject to international clearance, on a contract until the summer of 2026.
Centre-back Luizao made his debut for Sao Paulo in May and went on to play 20 times as they reached the final of the Copa Sudamericana and semi-finals of the Copa Do Brasil.
He will initially join the developmental squad, under the watchful eye of Mark Robson.
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