West Ham returned from the international break with victory in a five-goal thriller at Wolverhampton Wanderers that sees them enter the Champions League places.
Goals from Jesse Lingard, Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen put the game beyond Wolves’ reach before Leander Dendoncker scored on the stroke of half time and Fabio Silva scored a consolation goal 22 minutes from time.
West Ham held out however for a 3-2 victory and avoided the scenes from the Arsenal match just two weeks ago.
The Lingard Show
It was a frenetic start, in the opening two minutes Willian Jose turned two West Ham defenders on the edge of the box before dragging his shot wide. Almost immediately after, Antonio hit the frame of the goal with a shot after a fierce driving run.
It became 1-0 to the visitors after Lingard went on a mazey solo run which took out two defenders before coolly slotting it past the Wolves keeper with his weaker foot.
Lingard had an opportunity to double his money as he did well to drift pass a Wolves midfielder but failed to generate power on his shot near the edge of the box.
The Hammers lead was doubled when an excellent bit of skill by Lingard kept the ball alive for Arthur Masuaku whose low cross to Fornals enabled him to open his right foot perfectly to direct the ball into the far corner.
Wolves looked to get back on in game. Ruben Neves headed wide from Pedro Neto’s in-swinging corner shortly after the Hammers doubled their lead and Daniel Podence hit the crossbar with his looping header.
Against the run of play, Bowen made it 3-0 to West Ham. The substitute struck the ball well from 15 yards at the end of a deft counterattack once again created
After a couple more chances for Wolves, on the stroke of half time Dendoncker headed beyond Fabianski’s reach after Adama Traore found him with an excellent cross to get Wolves back into the game at 1-3.
Holding On
The Hammers thought they restored their three-goal lead and put the game to bed after Tomas Soucek bundled in the rebound from Bowen’s driven shot, however it was deemed to come off his arm and it remained 3-1
Neto took on Aaron Cresswell down the byline before putting Fabio Silva through on goal with a clipped pass over the top. The Portuguese youngster finished well leaving it at 3-2 and a nervous 22 minutes awaited the Hammers.
With the Arsenal game from a fortnight ago very much on their mind, West Ham close up and saw out the last 22 minutes to secure a vital win in their quest for Champions League football.
Moyes was left all smiles after his team’s performance and he had this to say, “We’ll keep it going. The boys are doing a brilliant job. We’re getting a wee bit threadbare at the moment, as you can see, but it didn’t show for periods of the game. If it’s to do with commitment and courage and bits like that, we’ve got bundles of that.”
West Ham’s next fixture is at home to Leicester as they’ll look to replicate 3-0 victory from the start of the season.
Full time Wolves 2 – 3 West Ham
