West Ham face the final weekend of the Premier League season in serious danger, and Jarrod Bowen admits concern over relegation has been growing for more than a year. The team sit two points from safety with one league match left and pressure increasing.
The Hammers trail the clubs above and are close to dropping into the Championship. Tottenham stand 17th with a game in hand and can send West Ham down by defeating Chelsea on Tuesday. Spurs’ much stronger goal difference means even a draw would almost certainly secure survival.
Bowen reflects that the battle at the bottom is not a sudden shock for the squad. "It's not like this season [relegation fight] has just come straightaway. It was starting to creep in a little bit last season," Bowen told
Sky Sports, accepting that the warning signs were already visible.
Across this league campaign, Bowen has not matched earlier scoring levels but has remained a creative outlet. The forward has eight Premier League goals, the lowest return since six in 2022-23. Bowen also has 10 assists, equalling a career-best figure in the 2021-22 season.
Only Bruno Fernandes, with 20 assists, and Rayan Cherki, with 12, have created more league goals in the Premier League this term. Bowen still feels numbers do not excuse performances. The attacker stresses that players have failed to relieve fears and must accept responsibility for West Ham’s position.
Bowen points to coaching changes and squad turnover but refuses to hide behind those factors. "But we thought we'd be better this season. Obviously, we had a new manager, then we changed manager after a few games. New players coming in. You never want to sit here and give excuses. That's not what I'm about because ultimately it's us. It's all on us. We're the ones that play. You can be set up in a way that you can do things. But when you cross that line, it's your 11 players on the pitch against their 11 players on the pitch. That's ultimately what it is. And we just haven't played well enough. We haven't been good enough as a group. I haven't played to the standards that I know that I can. I'm big enough to accept that. I just haven't played well enough. "
Full-time. pic.twitter.com/LnYSlPx5ICWest Ham United (@WestHam) May 17, 2026
With one fixture left and survival out of their hands, West Ham depend on other results, especially Tottenham’s matches. Bowen’s comments underline a wider feeling inside the squad that standards have dropped across the group, and that collective underperformance has left West Ham confronting Premier League relegation.
