West Ham United’s 4-0 win over Wolves sends a statement of intent in the Premier League.
While the huge game began with a West Ham United side beset by nerves, braces from Konstantinos Mavropanos and Valentin Castellanos take Nuno Espirito Santo’s side out of the relegation zone.
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A graphic asking West Ham United fans to rate Taty Castellanos' performance vs Wolves/
Credit: Getty Images/Rob Newell – CameraSport
It was a significant win for the Irons, who desperately needed to pick up all three points. Not only did they do that, they sent a statement of intent.
This was an emphatic response after so long without Premier League action.
Here are five things that Hammers News learned.
West Ham plunge Tottenham into the bottom three
West Ham should only be concentrating on themselves but it’s impossible not to note that their win over Wolves sends Tottenham into the relegation zone.
Roberto De Zerbi is now under huge pressure to win his first game in charge of Spurs, which comes at Sunderland on Sunday.
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A graphic asking West Ham United fans how confident they are of Premie League survivial on a scale of 1-10.
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The victory also takes Nuno’s side level on points with Nottingham Forest and just one behind Leeds, so it really does put the cat among the pigeons at the bottom of the Premier League table.
Jarrod Bowen comes good on vow to West Ham fans
Jarrod Bowen has certainly had better games during his time at the club. Not everything came off for him, though he did hit the post.
Crucially, however, the skipper crafted the first goal with a fine cross for Mavropanos after a corner was cleared.
Bowen vowed to step up for West Ham against Wolves and while his performance wasn’t perfect, he did exactly that.
Konstantinos Mavropanos celebrates scoring West Ham's first goal with Jarrod Bowen.
Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images
January signings step up for West Ham
Neither Castellanos nor Pablo Felipe have fully convinced at Premier League level since joining in January.
They may be willing runners, but there have long been doubts about their quality in front of goal.
Not all of those were answered on Friday night but the pair did go some way into responding.
Pablo’s lovely footwork teed up Taty for his first, while his second was slightly fortunate. You make your own luck at times, however.
Nuno’s attacking approach works out
Nuno has often been accused of being too defensive, but he stuck to his attacking guns here.
West Ham’s front-footed approach worked out and they were rewarded for that by winning the ball back in dangerous areas to tee up most of their goals.
It would have been easy to try and keep things tight but Nuno stuck with an aggressive 4-4-2 formation and duly reaped the rewards.
More to come from Crysencio Summerville
Crysencio Summerville’s return is important, even if this game largely passed him by.
Merely having the Dutchman available was a major boost for Nuno.
The winger’s return helped with that front-footed approach, and gave the attacking line a nice balance with Bowen on the other side.
More will be expected from Summerville but it’s brilliant to have him back.
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