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West Ham determined to make London Stadium a fortress after Chelsea draw, says Lukasz Fabianski

Clean sheet: Fabianski celebrated his first shutout of the season against Chelsea: REUTERS
Clean sheet: Fabianski celebrated his first shutout of the season against Chelsea: REUTERS

West Ham have yet to win a home match this season, but Lukasz Fabianski wants the goalless draw with Chelsea to be the first step in making the London Stadium a “fortress”.

The Poland goalkeeper is fast-becoming a firm favourite among West Ham fans, following his £7million summer move from Swansea, and again made several important saves yesterday.

“We have struggled so far at home, but we want to build a fortress at the London Stadium and make sure we are a hard team to beat,” he said. “The last two results (West Ham beat Everton 3-1 the previous week) have given us a bit of belief to build on.

“This week is very important because we have three home games. The first was against Chelsea, then we play in the League Cup against Macclesfield on Wednesday and then Manchester United next Saturday.

“We want to make sure that, when teams come here, they can expect tough games. The atmosphere in the stadium was pretty special against Chelsea. The fans responded and that was really cool.”

After four Premier League defeats, two of them at home to Bournemouth and Wolves, Manuel Pellegrini’s team look like they may have now turned the corner.

West Ham defended well and even had chances to win the game, none better than Andriy Yarmolenko’s glaring miss when he headed wide from Robert Snodgrass’s cross.

Fabianski also made a point-blank save when Alvaro Morato’s shot hit him in the face. “I took the ball in my eye,” he said. “It affected my vision for a bit but afterwards it was okay.

“We created two very good chances in the first half and then Andriy’s after half-time. We can be disappointed but, in the end, you have to respect the point, especially against a team like Chelsea, who had won all their League games and been in top form.

“They put us under a lot of pressure but I think we dealt with it pretty well. We were based on the counter-attack and we knew we would get some chances.

“Also, it is our first clean sheet. It took a while, but it is always pleasing. I’m a new player for this club, you always want to start well and clean sheets give you that extra bit of confidence.

“I’m really pleased with the overall performance of the team because everyone worked really hard for this. After the Wolves’ defeat, we understood that we needed to work harder.”