Two passes, two finishes, two gloriously talented footballers. Twice in the space of 10 first-half minutes here, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus combined, twice Wolves goalkeeper Dan Bentley was left fishing the ball out of the visiting net.
The result was West Ham’s most convincing Premier League victory of the season, Jarrod Bowen’s strike on 74 minutes completing a 3-0 triumph that sends David Moyes’s side into seventh for the time being at least.
But the joy was all in those two players, marquee additions in successive summer windows when, increasingly, it looks as if plenty of Europe’s biggest clubs missed a trick.
To have one player of such pure pedigree in any side outside the division’s uppermost elite is something of a rarity, but one this club has known before in the likes of Dimitri Payet and Paolo Di Canio. To have two operating in the same team in such thrilling tandem, though, is to be particularly savoured, not least because Kudus will head off to the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana in the New Year.
The winger’s brace here took his tally to eight in 21 appearances for the Hammers since joining from Ajax, an impressive haul considering David Moyes was initially cautious in integrating him off the bench.
The first came directly from a Wolves corner, Paqueta’s pass both timed and weighted to perfection. Dipping inside, Kudus lined up as if to curl to the far corner and Bentley swallowed the bait, shifting to his right and beaten low to his left as the strike finished a good yard inside the near post.
The second was similar in design, Kurt Zouma stepping in to nick the ball and feed Paqueta, who knew instinctively that Kudus would be on his bike once more. This time the ball sent the forward clean away in behind, the outcome inevitable even on his weaker right foot.
Paqueta would later make it a hat-trick of assists by laying on Bowen’s clincher, a timely contribution from the Brazilian who has been playing through a minor leg injury but had not scored or made a goal since before the last international break. He would have had another had Bowen’s earlier strike not come back off the post at the end of what, inspired by their headline duo, had been West Ham’s most complete 45 minutes of the league season.
The second-half was shakier, Wolves denied a route back into the game by a tight offside call as Sarabia tucked home from Nelson Semedo’s pass, more cause for grievance for Gary O’Neil, who was furious that Vladimir Coufal was not sent off for a forearm smash on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde shortly before the break.
With Wolves on top though, West Ham broke again, this time Bowen exchanging passes with Paqueta and then firing low past Bentley to follow Erling Haaland, Mo Salah and Heung-min Son into double figures for goals in the top-flight this term.
