West Ham United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Premier League.
London StadiumAttendance62,455.
Match report and free highlights as Lucas Paqueta teed up Mohammed Kudus twice in the first half and set up Jarrod Bowen for his strike after the break as West Ham move up to eighth; Wolves had Pablo Sarabia strike ruled out by VAR for offside but have lost four in a row away from home
Sunday 17 December 2023 20:07, UK
Lucas Paqueta produced a hat-trick of assists as West Ham moved up to eighth in the Premier League table with a 3-0 win over Wolves, who have now lost their last four on the road.
Paqueta twice sent Mohammed Kudus away to score in the first half, with the Ghanaian adding to his strike in the Europa League win over Freiburg at the London Stadium three days ago.
Kudus is a rising star in east London but while his speed, control and shot power were on show for both goals, Wolves' defending left plenty to be desired. They had been forced to bring in replacement goalkeeper Daniel Bentley and switched to a back four but were far too open.
Paqueta found Jarrod Bowen on the stroke of half-time, but while that shot came back off the post, the pair linked up brilliantly on 74 minutes to put the game to bed, with Mario Lemina once again punished for giving up possession cheaply in the centre of the park.
After progressing to the Europa League last-16 as group winners on Thursday and now seeing off Wolves, West Ham's 5-0 defeat at Fulham last weekend is increasingly looking like a strange blip. They've responded impressively.
Before that third West Ham goal Wolves had been pressing for a route back into the match and Pablo Sarabia saw a close-range finish chalked off by a long VAR check for offside. It's not the first time this season Gary O'Neil's side have been undone by the officials at Stockley Park but this was a correct, if extremely tight, call.
However, he would surely have been left less than impressed by two challenges from Vladimir Coufal on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, which saw the West Ham right-back collide with Bellegarde's head. He was only shown a yellow card for the second clash. In the Sky Sports studio, pundit Daniel Sturridge described the first as "WWE stuff."
Wolves remain in a relatively comfortable position in the table, 13th, 10 points above the relegation zone. But their defensive issues and lack of cutting edge - this was the first time they hadn't scored since the opening weekend - will give O'Neil plenty to ponder ahead of their Christmas Eve clash with Chelsea at Molineux.
West Ham boss David Moyes was full of praise for Paqueta after his standout display against Wolves - although pointed out the Brazilian can frustrate him too.
"It's what Paqueta can do for us," he said afterwards. "I'm pulling my hair out half the time and the other I'm celebrating because he can make passes others can't see.
"He's a special player. I don't have a huge amount of special players with individual talent so there's a little bit of leeway we have to give him. And I'm not someone who likes giving too much leeway to any of my players. I like to treat them all fairly. But I realise when you have that talent you have to let them flourish. His work rate for the team over recent months has been excellent."
Wolves arrived at West Ham with a new-look defence. In goal was replacement Bentley, following Jose Sa's shoulder injury, and ahead of him the usual back three had become a back four. They were changes which West Ham exposed.
Bentley was tested early on from an inswinging Bowen corner which had to be tipped over. That was one of a series of threatening early corners from the hosts, which left Wolves' defenders looking uncomfortable.
But it was a Wolves corner which led to the West Ham opener. Former Hammer Craig Dawson made the first contact but it was scrambled to Paqueta who sent Kudus racing away. The Ghana international showed excellent pace to drive towards the Wolves box and then fire a low shot past Bentley, hitting the net less than 18 seconds after the Wolves corner was taken.
Matheus Cunha was Wolves' brightest spark and forced Lukasz Fabianski to parry his long-range effort just before the half hour. But 10 minutes after their first, West Ham had a second. And it was the same combination, with Paqueta playing in Kudus once more.
Lemina's pass was cut out by Zouma and Wolves were caught out, with Paqueta sending a pass from inside his own half which found Kudus in acres in behind out-of-position Toti. Wolves' defence was split and Kudus was too quick for Dawson before finishing from inside the box.
It could have been even better for the home side before the break, with Bowen drilling a shot against the post from the edge of the box after seeing a penalty appeal for a shove from Joao Gomes turned down moments earlier.
Wolves improved after the break and thought they'd pulled one back with a slick move just before the hour. Joao Gomes, Bellegarde and Hee-Chan Hwang were all involved before Nelson Semedo crossed low for Sarabia to tuck in but a three-minute VAR check eventually concluded he was offside.
Cunha fired over and Lemina had a couple of off-target efforts as Wolves built momentum but they were undone by Paqueta for a third time with just over 15 minutes to play.
Lemina pinged a stray pass away in the centre of the pitch and when Bowen combined with Paqueta he was in, shooting across Bentley to tuck the ball inside the far post. It's his 10th of the season and only John Hartson (1997/98) has got to double figures quicker for West Ham in the Premier League era.
There was still time for Coufal to clatter into Bellegarde for a second time and earn a yellow. Both that challenge and one in the first half saw the Hammers defender collide with Bellegarde's head. Sub Thilo Kehrer went into the book for a late challenge on the same player.
But a first clean sheet since September and comfortable win caps a good week for West Ham, after their struggles at Fulham last Sunday.
Wolves boss Gary O'Neil: "Disastrous decision making and errors around the goals made the rest of the game fairly irrelevant. Crazy first goal to concede, not dealing with edge of box stuff correctly from our own corner. Next one, turn the ball over in a terrible situation. We managed to find our way into a game where we gifted West Ham a 2-0 lead at half-time. I understand people don't want to hear me explaining how even the game was when you've lost 3-0. In the big moments West Ham were far better than us.
"All [the goals were] from transitions. Really poor. West Ham were extremely clinical in those situations. We only gave them three or four and they converted three of them. To even lose the second half 1-0 was crazy after how dominant we were, pinned them back, had shots blocked, scored a really good goal which was deemed just offside, which was a big moment."
On the offside goal and Coufal's challenges on Bellegarde: "Over the course of the game, I think his challenges warrant two yellows at least. The fact he wasn't even booked for the one in the first half was strange. A really bad one in the second half he was booked for. I spoke to the fourth official briefly there about some of the soft bookings we've had this season. It played no part in the final result today.
"I don't want to complain about officials or VAR, it seemed fine today, I'm just disappointed the goal was deemed factually offside. It's hard to tell. I will be pleased when they bring in automated offsides. Live it looked just off. A big moment and a fantastic move. I thought my booking was really harsh. I voiced Coufal should have been booked… that's two now so need to be on my best behaviour onwards."
West Ham have a Carabao Cup quarter-final with Liverpool next on Wednesday, 8pm kick off, live on Sky Sports.
Wolves play Chelsea on Christmas Eve, 1pm kick-off, live on Sky Sports.
