Tomas Soucek celebrated his birthday with the winning goal as West Ham edged past Wolves in a crucial victory in the race for Europe.
The visitors dominated possession but were toothless in attack, failing to muster a shot on target until Ruben Neves’ speculative effort in the dying moments.
The Hammers created by far the better chances but struggled to apply the finishing touch against the visitors’ typically miserly defence until Soucek popped up in the 59th minute to toe-poke home Michail Antonio’s cross.
The victory moves West Ham above Arsenal and into fifth, although their London rivals now have three games in hand. Wolves remain in eighth.
Player ratings
West Ham
- Fabianski 6
- Johnson 7
- Dawson 7
- Zouma 6
- Cresswell 9
- Soucek 7
- Rice 8
- Bowen 7
- Lanzini 7
- Fornals 7
- Antonio 8
Subs:
- Vlasic 5
- Diop 5
Wolves
- Sa 7
- Kilman 6
- Coady 6
- Saiss 6
- Hoever 5
- Neves 7
- Dendoncker 6
- Marcal 5
- Trincao 5
- Hwang 6
- F Silva 5
Subs:
- Neto 5
- Podence 5
- Jimenez 5
Reaction: Toothless Wolves ‘needed Jimenez on earlier’
With three games in the space of seven days, Bruno Lage opted to make five changes to his starting XI at the London Stadium.
The visitors dominated possession but struggled to create opportunities and did not hit the target until Ruben Neves’ long-range effort was saved with ease by Lukasz Fabianski in the dying moments.
“Everyone was surprised I think when they saw the teamsheet,” said Matt Murray, the former Wolves goalkeeper, on Sky Sports.
“Bruno Lage made the changes for the reasons he did, wanting to freshen it up with a lot of a games coming. The Wolves players left a lot out there [in the midweek defeat] against Arsenal.
“But I thought he might have turned to the bench a bit quicker. Podence came on just after they [West Ham] scored. But I still felt Raul Jimenez needed to be on there to give Wolves a platform. Wolves had possession, got into areas but didn’t really test Fabianski.
“David Moyes will be delighted with the clean sheet but from Wolves’ point of view they didn’t do enough and can’t really complain about the result.”
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