West Ham United recorded their first home Premier League win of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
First league goals of the season for Gianluca Scamacca and Jarrod Bowen either side of half-time secured a 2-0 victory for the Hammers over the Old Gold at the London Stadium. That win moved David Moyes’ side out of the relegation zone and up to 15th in the table, a point clear of the bottom three heading into Thursday’s Europa Conference League tie against Belgian side Anderlecht.
Here are the talking points as West Ham sealed three points at home for the first time in England’s top-flight this season.
READ MORE: Every word David Moyes said on West Ham's Wolves win, Jarrod Bowen and Gianluca Scamacca
An important time to win
Going into the game, West Ham were bang out of form in the league after five defeats from seven and only three goals scored before facing Wolves. The meeting with Bruno Lage's side was the start of a run of three more favourable ties in the league before facing Liverpool and Manchester United in quick succession.
Ahead of kick-off, the Hammers and Wolves were the joint-lowest scorers in the league, hardly a game that was expected to promise goals, but West Ham did produce two of them, enough to seal a rather comfortable win.
From their first seven league games, three did come against ‘Big 6’ sides, but the biggest frustrations were the points not taken against easier sides, as opposed to defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea.
Both sides were in the bottom four ahead of kick-off and despite Wolves testing Lukasz Fabianski on a few occasions, the Hammers not only had the bigger key chances, but took whatever they got on a night where they needed to.
It was the first of nine games this month, with a win easing some pressure and bound to give everyone a lift, with Fulham next on the calendar in the league, fresh from a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Newcastle United on Saturday.
Bowen and Scamacca open accounts
What particularly pleased Moyes about the win was the fact that two of his primary sources of goals, Scamacca and Bowen, both opened their scoring accounts for the season in the Premier League.
Both linked up well during the game and it was the two of them that combined for the Hammers first goal, albeit with Bowen tackled in the build-up to Scamacca converting well from the edge of the penalty area.
For Bowen, his goal was thoroughly deserved. He had battled and scrapped through the game until his goal and was at the heart of all things good that West Ham did going forward, taking his goal excellently when pouncing onto a blocked Thilo Kehrer shot and converting with a vicious finish after shuffling past Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Moyes’ three primary sources of goals this season are likely to be Scamacca, Bowen and Michail Antonio, who have 10 between them for the campaign so far this season. While seven of them have been in the Europa Conference League, the fact that all three are now off the mark in the league is a big positive for the Irons.
Scamacca’s record
While Scamacca’s induction into West Ham’s first team has been a staggered process, there have been reasons for it. He joined the Hammers for £30.5million without any kind of pre-season behind him just 11 days before their opening game against Manchester City and had a short period of absence between late August and early September with a virus.
Scamacca has only started twice in the Premier League this term and coincidentally, they have been in the Hammers’ two league wins this season against Villa and now Wolves. In fact, the six games Scamacca has started this season in all competitions for West Ham have all ended in victory for the Irons, although he was taken off with his side either trailing or level in two of those at the time of being replaced.
The 23-year-old looked lively going forward, turning a first half chance wide and creating the move that eventually led to his goal with his hold up play and clever pass out wide to Bowen.
It is still early days, but when you are looking for wins and success, it is hard to ignore Scamacca from West Ham’s best 11 at present, a player who is the club’s top scorer in all competitions this season, averaging a strike every 119 minutes.
Back four shuffle
There was a shuffle in defence by Moyes, with Kehrer moving to right-back, Vladimir Coufal benched and Craig Dawson starting for the first time in the league this season.
The formula worked fresh off Kehrer playing in that role for Germany against England, Dawson was able to re-ignite his partnership with Kurt Zouma at centre-back and being complimented by the experience and know how of Aaron Cresswell.
That combination really shackled a Wolves side who hardly had a clear-cut chance of note barring a wasted Diego Costa header, with their best chances coming from long range.
Moyes’ new look starting back line left Coufal, Angelo Ogbonna and Emerson on the bench, Ben Johnson out of the matchday squad and Nayef Aguerd still sidelined, leaving Moyes with plenty of depth at the back when everyone is fit and available.
Cornet setback
Winger Maxwel Cornet had been rewarded with a full Premier League debut in place of Pablo Fornals on the left wing, having impressed recently off the bench in the league and in starts in the Europa Conference League.
However, the Ivorian’s delight at getting a first league start of the season were short-lived, with Cornet being forced off before half-time with a calf issue after being tackled by Daniel Podence.
It is unclear as to how severe the injury is at this stage, but it makes him a doubt for the trip to Anderlecht in midweek in the Europa Conference League, where West Ham have seen more of their summer signings so far this term.
Fornals is the front runner to take his place back if Cornet has a spell on the treatment table to come, with Said Benrahma not even featuring from the bench in the 2-0 win.
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