Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 West Ham United
Pre-Season Friendly
Marko Arnautovic scored the only goal of the game as West Ham United recorded a 1-0 pre-season friendly victory at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.
Arnautovic fired into the far corner with 34 minutes on the clock – and the Austrian’s goal on his first appearance of the summer proved enough to settle the contest.
The No7, along with debutant Andriy Yarmolenko, provided a serious threat in the opening period as the Hammers returned to England following a successful two-week training camp in Switzerland.
As the changes were made throughout the second half, the pace of the game dropped, but the Hammers came through a good workout with the spoils and will step their preparations up a notch against next weekend when they head to Preston North End.
Yarmolenko appeared from the start just four days after signing as a Hammer and he showed signs of understanding with his new teammates from the off, threatening from his station on the right flank.
With five minutes on the clock he headed down the wing and rolled back to Arnautovic, who won a corner. Snodgrass’ initial delivery was cleared, but the Hammers kept the attack alive with the ball eventually coming back to the Scot, who drilled inches over the top.
Seven minutes later Pedro Obiang struck a peach of a crossfield ball from left to right to pick out Yarmolenko. His cross was blocked behind for another corner, which ended with the Ukraine international sending a header against the crossbar.
West Ham could not make their fast start count, though, and the hosts’ Scott Kashket should really have given his side a 17th minute lead when Nathan Tyson spun away from Issa Diop on the left flank and crossed invitingly, only for the striker to nod wide from eight yards.
The game then entered a lull, but Arnautovic brought it back to life in style, showing great strength to hold off his man as he entered the area and whip a right footed shot across goalkeeper Ryan Allsop and into the far corner.
Three minutes before the interval Snodgrass and Josh Cullen had fierce efforts charged down inside the area as Wycombe dug in to ensure the score remained 1-0 at the break.
Manuel Pellegrini made three changes at half-time, bringing Jordan Hugill, Nathan Holland and Edmilson Fernandes on for Yarmolenko, Arnautovic and Cullen.
Another of the Hammers’ subs, Sam Byram, combined neatly with Hugull to lay on a chance for Snodgrass on 64 minutes, but his drive took a nick off a defender and flew over the top.
At the other end a minute later, Paris Cowan-Hall let fly from range, but Adrian was alert to the danger and got down sharply to his left to save.
The Hammers goalkeeper was in action again, showing good reflexes to keep out Anthony Stewart’s downward header from a corner as the Hammers recorded their first win of pre-season.
Wycombe Wanderers: Allsop (Ma-Kalambay 46), Jombati (Jacobson 46), El-Abd (Gape 46), Trialist (Stewart 46), Harriman (Bean 46), Trialist (Bloomfield 46), Saunders (Cowan-Hall 46 (Akinfenwa 74)), Trialist (Trialist 46), O’Nein (Thompson 46), Kashket (Trialist 46), Tyson (Trialist 46)
West Ham United: Adrian, Zabaleta (Byram 62), Diop (Oxford 79), Ogbonna (Haksabanovic 74), Masuaku, Noble (Rice 62), Cullen (Fernandes 31), Obiang, Snodgrass (Samuelsen 74), Arnautovic (Hugill 46), Yarmolenko (Holland 46)
Subs: Trott, Coventry
Goal: Arnautovic 34