Julen Lopetegui insists wins will come as West Ham labour to point at Brentford

Julen Lopetegui says his West Ham side will improve after they laboured to a draw against an injury-hit Brentford side.

Tomas Soucek’s second-half goal salvaged a point for West Ham and eased the pressure on the Spaniard who has tasted victory just once this season and came into this game on the back of heavy defeats to Chelsea and Liverpool in the midweek Carabao Cup tie at Anfield.

Lopetegui admitted he feared the worst after Bryan Mbeumo scored after just 37 seconds as Brentford became the first club in Premier League history to find the net in the opening minute in three successive matches.

He said: “It was a nightmare at the start because we knew they would do this kind of rhythm. They have done it two times before against City and Tottenham and they did it again today.

“Sometimes it is about our behaviour but after this I think we started to show the character to balance the match which is not easy against this kind of team.

“It is the first match they haven’t won at home and in the second half we were better and had the opportunity to win the match from a bad start and showed good personality and character.

“We had four or five clear situations and although it is only one point for me it is a very important step towards good things.”

Mbeumo beat Alphonse Areola in style after Fabio Carvalho nodded Kevin Schade’s cross back across goal to stun the West Ham, who had lost on this ground in their previous three Premier League visits.

The visitors offered precious little in a tepid opening 45 minutes with veteran lone striker Michail Antonio seeing little of the ball and Mohammed Kudus firing a tame shot straight at Mark Flekken in their only chance of note.

Lopetegui made two changes at half-time with Kudus replaced by Carlos Soler and the introduction of the Spain international midfielder made a difference as West Ham started the second period looking much brighter.

Soucek pounced seven minutes after the restart when Lucas Paqueta’s cross found Antonio whose shot was blocked by Nathan Collins, with the ball falling to the Czech midfielder who scored his second goal of the season.

Lopetegui said: “We wanted three points and in the second half we deserved three points. We had double the shots of them but in the last part we were not right. But I want to highlight the behaviour in the second half because we needed to work hard as a team and that is what you need to do in the Premier League.

“Soucek is a good example of always working hard for the team. We need this kind of player and attitude.

“We have a lot of new players and made changes so having time for that to work is important. In the meantime you have to win matches but we are getting close to the team we want to be.”

Brentford manager Thomas Frank praised the character of his players with his squad missing several first-team regulars including Christian Norgaard, Rico Henry and Yoane Wissa and said his side’s ability to start well was a product of hard work on the training ground.

Frank said of his side’s Premier League record: “There are other leagues in the world than just the Premier League – I need to know if it’s a world record.

“Of course I can say there’s some planning to it. We have a kick-off strategy, tweak it from game to game and train on it.

“As a mindset and philosophy we want to keep it up there, get it up front, be positive and try to score from the second ball. We did that in all three games.

“In the second half they put on a Greece and Spain international [Konstantinos Mavropanos and Soler, respectively] and have a huge budget and even though I’m not happy not to win, that’s huge praise to the players. I think it’s unbelievable.”