Jarrod Bowen banks 20 Dream Team points as West Ham’s first-choice front three reunite against Brentford

WEST HAM registered their first win of 2024 at Brentford’s expense on Monday night.

At the risk of oversimplifying things, it’s probably no coincidence that the Hammers scored four goals in front of their home fans at the London Stadium in the very game their first-choice front three was reunited.

Lucas Paqueta (£4.1m) returned to the starting line-up after a lengthy spell on the sidelines to join Mohammed Kudus (£4.6m) and Jarrod Bowen (£4.5m) in David Moyes’ preferred forward line.

The England international benefited most as he bagged a hat-trick in the 4-2 win against the Bees to bank 20 Dream Team points in one fell swoop.

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This represents a dramatic reversal of fortunes as Bowen had mustered just 13 points across his previous five outings.

Naturally, the 27-year-old’s ownership dropped during his fallow spell of form but Monday night’s performance has changed the outlook.

In fact, Bowen is currently the second most-popular recruit ahead of Gameweek 26, though it’s early days in that regard.

There can be little doubt that the Hammers are significantly more threatening when Bowen is flanked by Kudus and Paqueta, with the former now having scored 17 goals in all competitions this season.

Only Mohamed Salah (£6.7m), Joao Pedro (£4.3m) and Erling Haaland (£7.5m) have scored more goals at the time of writing and they’re all forwards – Bowen is generously categorised as a midfielder.

Dream Team bosses might consider this a timely return to form as West Ham are among the select group of five clubs with two fixtures to fulfil in Gameweek 26.

They travel to Everton on Saturday before flying to Freiburg for the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie on Thursday night.

Given the out-of-form German outfit are currently ninth in the Bundesliga, this has to be considered a favourable double header for Bowen, who now has 226 points to his name this season.

However, some gaffers will be understandably reluctant to back one of Moyes’ troops off the back of one win given how the last two months have played out.

Prior to Monday’s result, West Ham endured a miserable run that featured a 6-0 defeat to Arsenal, a draw against bottom-of-the-league Sheffield United, and a loss to Bristol City in the FA Cup.

Certainly, there will be no rush to recruit Alphonse Areola (£2.1m) or any of the defenders ahead of him but Paqueta, Kudus and particularly Bowen have provided boat-loads of points in combination with one another.

After his latest hat-trick, the latter averages 7.1 points-per-game in 2023/24.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk