Potter: A strong performance, but we'll stay humble

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Head coach with his reflections on Sunday's 2-0 win over West Ham.

Luke Nicoli

2022-08-21T16:05:00Z

Graham Potter reflected on a good pre-season trip to Portugal.

Graham Potter felt Albion’s opening goal went a long way to securing all three points at the London Stadium.

The Albion head coach admitted his side didn’t make the best of starts against West Ham United but got their noses in front in the 22nd minute through an Alexis Mac Allister penalty.

From then on it was another dominant display from the Seagulls, who doubled their lead when Leandro Trossard scored on 66 minutes. The victory made it seven points from nine games and took the side’s unbeaten run against West Ham to 11 games.

“We didn’t start off great,” Potter said. “We gave a few cheap ones away and obviously with the transition they have, the big spaces made it difficult for us to cope.

Leandro Trossard slots home Albion's second goal.

“But we scored at a good time and it was a nice counter-attack from us. I think they had the ball and probably made a mistake from their perspective, giving the ball away, and then we could attack the big space. It’s always difficult when you do that as the defensive team, so it was nice for Danny [Welbeck] to get the penalty, and Alexis tucked it away really well.

“It then becomes a little bit more comfortable, but I didn’t think we were perfect in the first half, although it was a strong performance.

“It wasn’t easy out there; it was another hot one and the pitch was quite slow, so to move the ball fast wasn’t so easy. But credit to the boys, they gave everything we asked them to do as well as they could and we deserved the points.”

Despite the Hammers’ threat from set-pieces and aerial balls into the box, Albion saw the game out comfortably and have now conceded just one goal in over 270 minutes of football this season.

“To see out some tough periods when we had to, create opportunities, score two good goals and keep a clean sheet means there are a lot of pleasing things there.

“The performance was quite strong, even though there are things we can still improve on and we’ll stay humble.

“We know how tough the Premier League is and how respectful we are of our opponent, so we just focus on the next game. That’s all we do, focus on the next match and try to put as much energy into that.”