At West Ham’s London Stadium, the Hammers hosted Wolverhampton in Premier League’s Matchday 30. Following a slow-paced first half, Wolves’ Portuguese manager introduced Adama Traore in the break as the latter changed up the match, architecting both moves to build up a 2-0 away win.
Despite visitors Wolverhampton creating and finishing more times during the first half, it was West Ham who got closer to opening the scoring. Hammers’ Fornals wasted a big chance before the quarter-hour mark, and Soucek was almost in, after a beautiful shot from outside the area, which counted on a deflection off Conor Coady, as the ball went wide.
After the break, Wolves’ Nuno Espirito Santo subbed Adama Traore in, as he made an instant impact into the game in the second half.
With only a few minutes left on the pitch, Adama made a good solo move down the right flank and crossed it to the box. Mexican striker Raul Jimenez was there to tap into the back of the net from the six-yard box to give Wolves the lead.
With all games being played behind closed doors, there’s no sense of saying that there’s even a home-court advantage. Even so, the Hammers searched for a draw at home, but conceded too many spaces, as Adama capitalized on it, powered down the right and assisted Pedro Neto, whose first-time effort rocketed the nets to open a two-goal cushion that surely gave the Wolves peace to halt any kind of possible reaction from West Ham.
With the 2-0 away win, Wolverhampton reached Manchester United’s 46 points and closed in the top-five fight. In contrast, West Ham remains fighting against relegation in 17th place on the table, with 27 points, ahead of Bournemouth, also with 27, Aston Villa with 26 and Norwich further behind with 21.