BBC pundit Andy Hinchcliffe has slammed West Ham United centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos for a reckless challenge on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde late in Monday’s game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Hammers claimed a crucial 2-1 win over Wolves at London Stadium, with Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen scoring on either side of a Matt Doherty strike in the second half.
Julen Lopetegui has come under intense scrutiny, given West Ham’s awful start to the season, and there was a general feeling that anything but maximum points against Wolves would spell trouble.
However, West Ham got over the line in front of their home fans, but a late tackle from Mavropanos could have turned the tides against the Hammers.
The Greek defender made a lunging tackle trodding on the foot of Wolves forward Bellegarde before Tommy Doyle skied a decent chance from Matheus Cunha.
At first glance, it looked like a punishable offence. But it was checked and cleared by the video assistant referee (VAR), and former Manchester City and Everton defender Hinchcliffe believes the West Ham defender was lucky to get away with it.
“It was a completely unnecessary challenge from Konstantinos Mavropanos,” Hinchcliffe said (viaBBC Sport). “He’s so lucky to get away with it.”
West Ham have now halted a rot of consecutive defeats against Arsenal and Leicester City and will be hoping to build on the crucial win when they travel to Bournemouth next weekend.
Victory against Wolves has lifted someof the pressure off Lopetegui’s shoulders, but the Spanish manager is not out of the woods yet.
The Hammers are still languishing in the bottom half of the table, but they’ve extended the gap to the relegation zone to nine points.
There’s still worktobe done to salvage an appalling campaign, but Lopetegui has bought himself valuable time to turn things around.