West Ham defender Dino Mavropanos was full of pride after scoring in victory at former club Arsenal.

The Greek struck after Tomas Soucek had given the Hammers the lead, so securing their 2-0 win.

“We are really happy to get the three points and to go into the New Year with this result," Mavropanos told West Ham TV. “It was a fantastic way to end the year. An amazing result away from here, especially here against Arsenal.

“What a day it was to get my first goal! What a place to do this as well, to score my first goal for West Ham in the Premier League. It was amazing.

“Deep inside I really wanted [to celebrate] because I helped the team and in front of our fans as well. But I spent two or three years here and of course I respect Arsenal."

He added: “We knew that Arsenal is one of the best teams and there would be parts of the game where we would have to defend really hard.

“This is what we did with our plan, and we created a lot of situations for the counter-attack. We had them there and this is how we scored the goal.

“Getting that first goal gave us more energy and motivation to keep going. The first goal was really important for us and for the team."