West Ham United boss Julen Lopetegui has had no hesitation in entrusting Jarrod Bowen with the skipper’s armband ahead of the big Premier League kick-off against Aston Villa at London Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm).

Following the seemingly imminent departure of Kurt Zouma, the 10-cap England international is a popular pick amongst team-mates and supporters alike.

And, after helping West Ham United to a penalty shoot-out victory over Celta Vigo in Lopetegui’s final pre-season friendly, one of Bowen’s first tasks was to lift the Betway Cup.

“I’m very happy with my choice,” said the Hammers boss.

“Jarrod’s been here for lots of years now and he knows the football club very well. He also plays for the national team and has a very good profile with everyone.

"But – for me - there are no privileges for the captain. Instead, the job comes with lots of different responsibilities for him.”

The 27-year-old Bowen, who has made 202 outings in claret and blue since joining the Hammers from Hull City in January 2020 , also opened the scoring with a sixth-minute strike before the La Liga outfit equalised through Mihailo Ristić midway through the opening period.

And although the newly-installed Hammers skipper was on hand to help set up Lucas Paquetá’s classy reply before the break, substitute Pablo Durán forced penalties with a second-half leveller.

“We did some good things today,” added Lopetegui after his side prevailed 6-5 in the shoot-out.

“But we must continue to improve both in our physical play and tactically. Some players have only just returned from the UEFA European Championships and Copa America so we’ve only been together for one week.

“It was good to see Paquetá get 65 minutes, he’s back and he’s happy, which is very important. Lucas is working hard and when he does that he is a better player for it, while the team is better, too.

“Like everyone, he is looking forward to the challenge of the new season but everyone needs to play for more minutes and we would’ve like to have had another week to prepare for the start of the season.”

The Spaniard was able to give five of his seven summer signings, to date, a run-out in his first-ever match in the ‘home’ dug-out at London Stadium.

Max Kilman and Guido Rodriguez both started and Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Füllkrug plus Luis Guilherme came off the bench, so only the 11th-hour capture from Nice, Jean-Clair Todibo, and injured veteran keeper Wes Foderingham missed out at the weekend.

“I tried to make some changes in the second half so that more players could get their feet onto the pitch because we will need to be ready to make rotations in our games," said Lopetegui.

"We will need to adapt to find ways of getting our late arrivals – plus any more new signings - into the team but that’s not just my problem, every manager will be feeling exactly the same at the moment.

“Now, we must go and face our first big challenge of the season and our first step in the Premier League against Aston Villa.”