West Ham get their biggest win in eight years, thrashing Wrexham 6-0 at the London Stadium.
Nuno Espírito Santo made five changes to the team that beat Bolton on Tuesday night, and a couple were surprising, to say the least.
He dropped Scarles, which was fair, but not for new left-back signing Adama Boiro, but for Morato. Taty Castellanos also returned to the starting XI, with rumours that he was only fit enough for the bench. Veltman, Piroe, and Solomon also returned from the start.
The opening exchanges of the game were pretty similar to a lot of matches this season. However, you could tell West Ham were in control. We weren’t creating many clear-cut chances, but we were feeling them out.
Bowen and Taty both had a couple of attempts, and Mavropanos and Piroe also had one each. The Surinamese international really should’ve scored from close range, but he blazed it over.
However, just before the half-hour mark, we finally broke through. Mukasa started the move from deep with an excellent ball out to Solomon; the former Spurs man waited for Morato to overlap. The Brazilian put in a peach of a low cross to Bowen, who tapped it in at the front post.
West Ham academy product George Dobson would’ve made it 1-1 if Mavropanos wasn’t there to clear it off the line. However, it was the Greek international’s sloppy pace that gave them the chance to attack anyway.
But that didn’t change the flow of the game at all; a few minutes later, Joel Piroe made up for his earlier miss. Another pre-assist for Solomon, who played Taty in behind the defence beautifully. He then squared it to Piroe, who again smashed it towards goal, but this time it his the back of the net.
Mavropanos then made it four for the season as he put the Hammers 3-0 up just after the break. Bowen’s cross was headed in by Dinos at the far post; everyone in the crowd thought Patterson had saved it, but it crept over the line.
Bowen went close himself after an impressive counter-attacking run from Taty. But it was the Argentinian who was next on the scoresheet. Kyle Walker-Peters ran pretty much the whole pitch from the left side of our own box after a corner. He played a one-two with Piroe, which got him in behind the defence, now on the right side of their box. He found Taty free on the edge of the box, who placed it beautifully with his weaker left foot into the far bottom corner.
Solomon then got an assist from himself as he clipped the ball beautifully over the top to substitute Mo Kante from deep. With only the Frenchman and the keeper within reaching distance of the ball, Kante controlled it beautifully and smashed it past the former Millwall goalkeeper into the roof of the net.
The sixth came from yet another mazy run from KWP; this time he found Manor Solomon on the edge of the box, who yet again finished expertly on his weak foot to put us six to the good.
You’ll notice there wasn’t much said about Wrexham in this match report; that’s because the Hammers completely dominated proceedings at the London Stadium. A brilliant performance from Nuno Espírito Santo’s side.
