West Ham United 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Premier League, London Stadium, Sunday 17 December 2023, 2pm GMT
Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá brought Christmas cheer to east London a week early as they combined to fire West Ham United to a 3-0 Premier League victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Kudus continued his superb form with a pair of first-half strikes, before Bowen added a third after the break, with Paquetá registering a hat-trick of assists as the Hammers moved into seventh place and onto 27 points from 17 games played.
The Ghana star’s first, on 22 minutes, was a pitch-length counter that saw Emerson, Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá combine to send Kudus clear down the right. He cut inside and fired a left-foot drive past Nelson Semedo and goalkeeper Dan Bentley from 20 yards.
Ten minutes later, he was found in a similar position by a superb diagonal pass from the Brazilian, raced away from former Hammer Craig Dawson and slotted unerringly home with this right.
And, after Wolves threatened a rally and saw a Pablo Sarabia goal ruled out for offside by VAR Jarred Gillett, Bowen made the points safe when he raced onto another Paquetá pass and placed his shot low past Bentley.
Bowen and Kudus now have ten and nine goals in all competitions respectively, while Paquetá is up to eight assists.
West Ham were value for their half-time advantage, and could even have stretched it to three had Jarrod Bowen’s low shot not cannoned off the inside of the post and bounced behind Bentley to safety seconds before the break. James Ward-Prowse also saw a free-kick held by the Essex-born goalkeeper as West Ham played with welcome fluidity.
That said, it took some determined defending from the hosts to keep Wolves out, too, with Łukasz Fabiański saving from Matheus Cunha and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Matheus Cunha, Hwang Hee-chan and Toti seeing shots blocked by Nayef Aguerd, Vladimír Coufal, Kurt Zouma and Álvarez respectively.
As you would expect, Wolves came out with purpose as they sought a route back into the game and, after Tomáš Souček had blocked Hwang’s shot wide, they thought they had one on 58 minutes, when Sarabia converted Nelson Semedo’s cross from six yards. However, after a three-minute check by VAR Gillett, the strike was ruled out for offside against the Spain international.
Cunha then fired over and João Gomes hit one effort straight at Fabiański and a second over the bar before Bowen made the game safe, latching onto Paquetá’s pass, sprinting clear of Dawson and slotting low across Bentley and into the bottom left-hand corner.
And so it was that Wolves slumped to their fourth straight defeat at London Stadium and West Ham scored their fourth win in six Premier League matches.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal (Kehrer 90+1), Zouma ©, Aguerd, Emerson, Álvarez (Fornals 70), Souček, Ward-Prowse, Paquetá (Mubama 86), Kudus (Ings 86), Bowen
Subs not used: Areola (GK), Cresswell, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Benrahma
Goals: Kudus 23, 32, Bowen 74
Booked: Zouma, Coufal, Kehrer
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Bentley, Kilman ©, Dawson, Toti (Aït-Nouri 70), Semedo (Doherty 80), Lemina (Doyle 80), Gomes, Bellegard, Sarabia, Cunha, Hwang
Subs not used: King (GK), S.Bueno, Traoré, Silva, H.Bueno, Kalajdzic,
Booked: Toti, O’Neil (head coach)
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Attendance: 62,455
