West Ham United 4-1 Ipswich Town
Premier League, London Stadium, Saturday 5 October 2024, 3pm BST
Some things are certain in life, and one of them is West Ham United beating newly-promoted opponents in the Premier League.
The Hammers made it ten wins and two draws from their last 12 matches against top-flight new boys with a 4-1 thumping of Ipswich Town at London Stadium on Saturday.
Jarrod Bowen shrugged off the disappointment of his England snub by scoring one goal and assisting two more, while Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paquetá also found the net to earn Julen Lopetegui his first home league win as Head Coach.
While Kieran McKenna’s side were spirited, ultimately they lacked the overall quality to handle a West Ham team which produced its best all-round performance of Lopetegui’s reign.
Early goals help, of course, and after conceding on 40 seconds at Brentford a week previously, West Ham were in front on 49 seconds against the Suffolk side.
Dara O’Shea was dispossessed inside the centre circle by Antonio, who fed Bowen. Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s overlapping run created time and space for Bowen to run to the edge of the box and cross low for Antonio, who converted smartly past Ari Muric in the Ipswich goal.
However, the lead lasted less than five minutes as Liam Delap held off Paquetá from a corner, before turning and slamming a low shot inside the near post that Alphonse Areola could not keep out.
The lively start continued as Muric denied Bowen with a save, then Jacob Greaves did likewise with a block, before Kudus’s low strike was held by Ipswich’s Kosovo international stopper.
Ipswich’s threat did not relent completely, either, as Kalvin Phillips curled over from 25 yards midway through the half.
West Ham were dominating possession in the main, with Jean-Clair Todibo repeatedly bringing the ball out of defence, and one such move ended with Tomáš Souček’s shot being deflected wide. Back came Ipswich, though, and from a Leif Davis corner, O’Shea headed narrowly wide.
Moments later, the Irishman was on his own goal line clearing another Souček shot after Muric’s clearance had been intercepted by Paquetá, before the Brazilian curled a first-time shot straight at the goalkeeper.
Finally, the pressure told, just over a minute before the break, when Emerson’s cross was headed against the underside of the crossbar by Antonio, and Kudus reacted quickest to leap and head home the bouncing ball.
There was still time for Wan-Bissaka to work Muric in added-time as West Ham ended the half with seven shots on target – a higher total than in any full game they had played this season.
Four minutes after half-time, another shot on target produced West Ham’s third goal. Ben Johnson’s back pass hurried Muric, who blocked Antonio’s shot as far as Bowen. The captain dribbled into the box, cut past Phillips and rifled into the bottom left-hand corner.
The Hammers went within a whisker of a fourth on the hour-mark when Kudus volleyed Bowen’s through ball goalwards, but Muric produced a superb one-handed stop down to his right.
Areola then did likewise, plunging to push Delap’s powerful downward header off his line and maintain the hosts’ two-goal advantage.
And that advantage was stretched to three a few minutes later when Bowen provided his second assist, collecting Antonio’s return pass before squaring for the unmarked Paquetá to net from close-range.
The game was won, but there were chances to add further goals, too, as Muric denied Kudus before catching Bowen’s audacious effort from halfway, then substitute Carlos Soler sent a rising shot over the crossbar.
There was still time for Aaron Cresswell to appear against his former club, Luis Guilherme to make his West Ham debut, and Hammers fan Sam Szmodics to curl narrowly wide again the team he supported as a boy.
West Ham United: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson (Cresswell 83), Rodríguez (Álvarez 70), Paquetá (Summerville 83), Souček, Bowen ©, Kudus (Luis Guilherme 85), Antonio (Soler 70)
Subs not used: Fabiański (GK), Coufal, Mavropanos, Ings
Goals: Antonio 1, Kudus 44, Bowen 49, Paquetá 69
Ipswich Town: Muric, Johnson, Greaves, O’Shea, Davis, Morsy ©, Phillips (Taylor 74), Burns (Ogbene 74), Hutchinson (Chaplin 83), J.Clarke (Szmodics 73), Delap (Hirst 83)
Subs not used: Walton (GK), H.Clarke, Woolfenden, Townsend
Goal: Delap 6
Booked: Clarke
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Attendance: 62,467
