Scoring against his old club was the perfect way to open his account for West Ham Konstantinos Mavropanos has stated.

At the start of the season, it seemed like Mavropanos was struggling to adapt to life in the Premier League. A few bad mistakes raised alarms for West Ham fans but, over the past few weeks, he has proven himself to be a valuable asset to David Moyes and, at this rate, it seems Nayef Aguerd may struggle to get ahead of him after he returns from AFCON.

Unsurprisingly, the Greek was overjoyed to have walked away with a win from his previous employers, especially as he played such a pivotal role in doing so. “We are really happy to get the three points and to go into the New Year with this result,” Mavropanos confirmed when speaking to West Ham TV. “It was a fantastic way to end the year. An amazing result away from here, especially here against Arsenal.”

“What a day it was to get my first goal! What a place to do this as well, to score my first goal for West Ham in the Premier League. It was amazing.”

Mavropanos’ brilliant header doubled the Hammers advantage in, what would be, a historic win. Out of respect, he refused to celebrate but the smile on his face as he held up his hands spoke a thousand words.

“Deep inside I really wanted [to celebrate] because I helped the team and in front of our fans as well,” he confessed. “But I spent two or three years here and of course I respect Arsenal.”

When the lineup was announced, people were concerned over a partnership of Ogbonna and Mavropanos, especially considering our previous two away games. However, the two put in a masterful defensive display and Dinos stated that it was all down to the game plan that his side was able to keep a third consecutive clean sheet in the league. 

“We knew that Arsenal is one of the best teams and there would be parts of the game where we would have to defend really hard. This is what we did with our plan, and we created a lot of situations for the counter-attack. We had them there and this is how we scored the goal.”

Last night was one of those wins that will live on forever in the memories of those who watched it, and the defender summed up perfectly the feeling amongst the fans right now. “What a way to go into 2024. We are looking forward for the next game and the New Year to see what it will bring us.” He’s improved game after game in Claret and Blue, let’s hope he can keep doing so.