West Ham picked the perfect moment to record their biggest Premier League win for three years. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side dispatched bottom-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers — his former club — with a 4-0 win.
They were last victorious by a margin that big against Bournemouth in April 2023. David Moyes was head coach then. Julen Lopetegui and Graham Potter have been and gone after short, unsuccessful tenures. With some tactical tweaks and winter signings, Nuno has turned their season around.
From seven points adrift of safety after a 2-1 home defeat by Nottingham Forest in early January, West Ham are now out of the bottom three and five matches unbeaten at the London Stadium. A trio of respectable draws against Bournemouth and both Manchester clubs are sandwiched between important wins over Sunderland and Wolves.
Since New Year’s Day only Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea have scored more than West Ham (19).
Nuno reimagined the team following Lucas Paqueta’s January departure. No 9 Taty Castellanos and No 10 Pablo arrived, providing structure up front. Castellanos is a focal point, presses tirelessly and runs channels. Goalkeeper Mads Hermansen often targets him with long balls, and Pablo, a recent returnee from injury, plays close to him.
Nine changes to their past eight Premier League teams is settled by West Ham standards this season. Nuno has stuck with a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 recently, only deviating to a back three for the visit of Manchester City.
There was a lot of unsuccessful system shifting early in his tenure, including a rogue decision to field Kyle Walker-Peters and Oliver Scarles as full-backs on their unnatural sides at home against Brentford. In December, injuries and a lack of forward options meant Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville, two traditional wingers, had to moonlight as a strike partnership.
That duo are the creative heart of this team and put in key shifts defensively. The second and third West Ham goals on Friday night, counter-attacks which cut through Wolves, stemmed from Bowen and Summerville making regains.
The pair were involved in 22 ground duels collectively. Post-match, Wolves head coach Rob Edwards told reporters that they had “spoken a lot about fast transitions” and they worked on defending them in training, knowing West Ham’s quality attacking at speed.
Because they have started games better and scored first more in the back half of the season, West Ham can lean into those counter-attacking qualities more. Either side of half-time, Pablo and Summerville tried to lob Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa quickly after regaining possession.
Bowen showed his crossing quality. He set up the opener just before half-time when his inswinging corner was initially cleared. Mateus Fernandes picked up the pieces on the edge of the box, gave the ball back to him, and Bowen whipped a better cross for Konstantinos Mavropanos to head in.
The club captain slipped through Castellanos for the third — less than two minutes after the Argentine had made it 2-0 — and then produced the corner which was flicked to the back-post for Mavropanos, who netted his second of the game and a gloss-adding fourth goal.
It makes for nine goal involvements for Bowen in his past 10 league appearances. Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes (nine) is the only Premier League player to better his seven assists this calendar year. He came close to scoring when he cut inside early in the second half and curled a shot against the far post.
The wide partnerships are flourishing for Nuno. Bowen worked well alongside right-back Walker-Peters — and has been even ahead of the underlapping Aaron Wan-Bissaka — while Summerville dovetailed with left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf.
Nuno has repeatedly talked about the importance of getting bodies in the box and having the far-side winger sprinting to get into scoring positions.
They have scored important goals from crosses in significant wins against Burnley (Diouf to Castellanos), Sunderland (Bowen to Summerville), fellow relegation battlers and London rivals Tottenham Hotspur (Wan-Bissaka to Callum Wilson, not pictured) and in the eventual 3-2 defeat away at Chelsea (Wan-Bissaka to Summerville).
Part of West Ham’s first-half struggles to break Wolves down were because Bowen and Summerville positioned themselves narrowly, trying to pin the outside centre-backs in Wolves’ 3-5-2.
Repeatedly they were overloaded three-v-two in midfield, and the game struggled for flow because fouls kept being called. Wolves No 6 Andre stayed deeper when they pressed high — the visitors were man-for-man everywhere else — and kept sweeping up second balls when Hermansen or the centre-backs played long.
“The first half was tough. We didn’t close the lines. We were lucky in the moment we scored,” Nuno told reporters. “The whole dynamic changes (at 1-0).”
They have made their own luck recently. West Ham have scored five times from corners since the end of February, improving massively in dead-ball situations at both ends — opposition corners have been an Achilles heel for most of this season.
Dealing with Wolves’ corners, and especially Jason Tchatchoua’s long throws, which twice were flicked on and created moments, was a point of pride for Nuno. “We defended properly,” he said. “In the second half we were compact, aggressive, and played forward.”
Understandably, as a former goalkeeper, Nuno prioritises the defensive side of the game. His midfielders consistently change for that reason, using Freddie Potts in matches where he anticipates technical quality being the difference. Tomas Soucek comes in and out when physicality and box presence matters more, and Fernandes’ position is adjusted according to the level of opposition.
Nuno insisted that the win “doesn’t change anything”. He was poker-faced, but smiled while talking to reporters, but it is significant that West Ham lifted themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time since late November. Results are paramount at this stage of the season, and that kind of clinical performance is a real statement.
Their odds of survival have been rising all year. If the attack keeps firing like this, they might just pull off an outstanding escape act.