Making it four wins on the spin, wonderful West Ham United hit woeful Wrexham for six as they returned to the top of the EFL Championship at London Stadium on Friday night.
Goals from Jarrod Bowen, Joël Piroe, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Taty Castellanos, Mohamadou Kanté and Manor Solomon saw the heartless Hammers spectacularly slay the Red Dragons with a 6-0 victory that took their tally to a dozen points and 16 goals inside just 11 days.
“I’m very, very happy. We’ve just seen London Stadium celebrate after playing a very good game and it’s been a very positive evening for us,” enthused Nuno Espírito Santo after his side romped to their biggest league victory for 14 years with half-a-dozen different players getting on the score-sheet for the first-time in Hammers history. “It’s very important for us to have six different goalscorers and also keep a clean sheet. That’s a big boost of confidence. We’re starting to see some of the combinations, understanding and awareness that we’ve been working on at the training ground.”
Making five changes from the side that had won at Bolton Wanderers three days earlier, the Head Coach handed a full debut to Morato and the on-loan left-back’s low, near-post cross enabled skipper Bowen to cleverly flick past visiting ‘keeper Anthony Patterson as the half-hour mark approached.
On 35 minutes, Mavropanos atoned for his own unforced error by blocking on the line from former Hammers midfielder George Dobson and with that crucial clearance went all hope of a Wrexham fightback.
“That was a big, big moment because everything could’ve changed,” observed Nuno. “After that, we were really good defensively and, overall, didn’t give too many chances away. We were organised and that required lots of hard work from the forward players to press and cover big areas of the pitch.”
Shortly afterwards, the breaking Castellanos squared for Piroe to double his side’s lead with a crisp 12-yarder and, three minutes after the break, Mavropanos powerfully headed home Bowen’s well-flighted corner for his third goal of the season.
“We’re becoming a threat from set-pieces,” he continued. “Our delivery has become very accurate.”
Marauding substitute Kyle Walker-Peters then carried the ball deep into Wrexham territory, where he played a one-two with Piroe before inviting Castellanos to make it four from 18 yards on the hour-mark.
Next up, Solomon released the recently-arrived Kanté, who chipped over the advancing Patterson with a quarter-hour remaining.
Despite all their celebrity stardust and Hollywood-hype, Wrexham, playing in front of a 59,712 crowd – the largest in their history – had simply frozen under the London Stadium lights against a block-busting West Ham side, who made it six of the best on 82 minutes, when Walker-Peters set-up Solomon for a delightful 18-yarder that curled in-off the right post.
“We were already in control of the game but the players coming from the bench brought energy onto the pitch. They kept breaking the lines to achieve different situations. Fresh legs make a big difference. Yes, we now have to go again but we’re in a better place.” concluded Nuno whose side welcome Fulham for Tuesday evening’s Carabao Cup third-round tie (kick-off 7.45 pm). “It’s been good to see our fans happy because London Stadium is so important for us and we’re going to need them again on Tuesday.”
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