Wolves 2 West Ham 3 - Report

Nuno Espirito Santo's charges threatened in attack all evening and put in a spirited second-half display, but they were undone by the excellent Jesse Lingard at Molineux in a costly first period.

He danced his way through to open the scoring and also played a vital part in goals for both Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen.

Wolves, in the wake of Jonny Castro Otto injuring both his anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament, responded through Leander Dendoncker and substitute Fabio Silva.

Ultimately, though, haphazard defending was the decisive factor and they remain 14th in the Premier League – nine points clear of the drop zone with eight games left to play.

Analysis

If you defend like that, you are always going to make it extremely difficult to win games of football.

Preparation for this encounter, of course, was far from ideal, with Otto being struck by another injury to his right knee.

But even so, they gave the Hammers – and Lingard especially – way too much time and space.

For all three of their goals, Lingard toyed with a defence which looked afraid to make a tackle. They played into his hands and paid for it.

It was not all bad, with Dendoncker finally grabbing his first goal of the season thanks to an exquisite cross from Adama Traore – picking up his first assist of the season.

Club-record signing Silva put in an another bright display off the bench, too, marking it with a fantastic finish.

But playing with four at the back, Wolves were run ragged by the Hammers. They were pulled from pillar to post.

And for a team which thrived on defensive organisation in previous years, that is what will disappoint Nuno the most.

It is a good – on paper, anyway – run of fixtures coming up for Wolves now. They simply cannot afford to carry on defending like that, though.

Match report

Wolves made three changes to the starting line-up, all of which were enforced.

As well as the devastating blow of losing Otto to another serious knee injury, Nuno was without Joao Moutinho and Willy Boly for the visit of the Hammers.

Moutinho had not recovered from a groin injury picked up while on international duty with Portugal, and Boly is currently self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.

Rayan Ait-Nouri, Daniel Podence – featuring for the first time since early February following an adductor problem – and Dendoncker were those to come in for Wolves, who named a bench primarily made up of youngsters.

Amid all the injury chaos came a switch to a back four and Nuno's charges, frankly, were all over the shop – cut through at will.

The hosts had some early opportunities of their own, with Willian Jose dragging an effort wide and Ait-Nouri flashing another just past the far post.

But the frailties of the 4-2-3-1 system – and not for the first time this campaign – were quickly exposed.

Just six minutes in, Lingard was allowed to drive with the ball from his own half, skipping past both Dendoncker and Romain Saiss along the way, before emphatically firing it beyond the helpless Rui Patricio.

From a West Ham point of view, it was a stunning, special solo goal. But from a Wolves perspective, the defending was dreadful.

The sloppiness, unfortunately, did not stop there either.

Lingard was in the thick of things again as David Moyes' men quickly doubled their lead. The Manchester United loanee's deft flick caught out the flat-footed Nelson Semedo, allowing Arthur Masuaku to send over a low cross and leave the unmarked Fornals with a simple finish.

And it went from bad to worse. An injury to Michail Antonio, who had the beating of both Conor Coady and Saiss, could have offered some respite.

Instead, his replacement Bowen scored straight after coming on. Remarkably, Lingard surged past a crowd of old gold shirts once more before slipping in the substitute, whose powerful first-time shot beat Patricio at his near post.

Wolves – it was quite obvious by this point – were being far too soft. On each of the Hammers' three goals, somebody had the chance to take down Lingard, pick up a booking and regroup. They gave him too much respect.

There was at least something to shout about before the break as Dendoncker headed home after wonderful wing play from Traore – driving to the byline and delivering a pinpoint cross with his weaker left foot.

That offered a glimmer of hope and, after all, it could not have got worse than the first period.

Wolves, having also seen Pedro Neto somehow miss from a few yards prior to half-time, kept on looking pretty threatening in the final third.

Silva came on for Podence in what was a pre-planned change – going to an old-school 4-4-2 in the process – and Dendoncker was not far away from a second as his curling strike from the edge of the area sailed narrowly wide.

Jose also had an opportunity to pull the trigger near the penalty spot but paused and saw the opening fizzle out.

Wolves' defence was still suspect, with Bowen heading wide and Tomas Soucek hitting the net before rightly being pulled up for handball.

However, their attacking play was growing stronger by the minute. Another goal arrived as Silva beautifully took down Neto's through-ball and stroked it into the far corner.

It was classy, confident work from the teenager and Nuno's pack – bringing on Vitinha for Jose – kept creating.

Dendoncker and Neto, though, both blazed over from 18 yards out as Wolves, despite their second-half improvement, fell to defeat.

Teams

Wolves (4-2-3-1): Patricio; Semedo, Coady (c), Saiss, Ait-Nouri (Hoever, 90); Neves, Dendoncker; Traore, Podence (Silva, 46), Neto; Jose (Vitinha, 72)

Subs not used: Ruddy (gk), Richards, Kilman, Marques, Otasowie, Gibbs-White

Goals: Dendoncker (44), Silva (68)

West Ham (3-4-3): Fabianski; Dawson, Diop, Cresswell; Coufal; Noble (c), Soucek, Masuaku (Johnson, 67); Fornals (Benrahma, 78), Antonio (Bowen, 35), Lingard

Subs not used: Martin (gk), Trott (gk), Balbuena, Fredericks, Alves, Odubeko

Goals: Lingard (6), Fornals (15), Bowen (38)

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)