West Ham secured their fourth league win in a row as they returned to the top of the Championship with a thumping 6-0 win over Wrexham at the London Stadium. It was a marvellous display of attacking football from Nuno Espírito Santo’s side, who swept to victory with room to spare and with six different scorers.
Jarrod Bowen got the ball rolling after 28 minutes, Joël Piroe made it two before the break, then Konstantinos Mavropanos, Taty Castellanos, Mohamadou Kanté and Manor Solomon all scored in the second half as the Welsh side were dealt a hiding. The performance was further evidence the Hammers are finding their feet in the second tier after failing to win any of their first three games following Premier League relegation.
They should have led inside seven minutes, Castellanos sending a free header from Solomon’s cross over from six yards. Bowen then got clear in the box from a quick throw, but his shot was turned against the crossbar by a reflex save from Anthony Patterson. From the corner that resulted, Mavropanos headed a foot wide at the far post.
Piroe was guilty of an awful miss midway through the half, leaning back and blasting high into the Wrexham fans behind Patterson’s goal. Bowen showed him how it was done a minute later. Morato’s cross from the right was timed perfectly into the six-yard box, where the home side’s captain was arriving ahead of Jacques Ekomié to guide it into the far corner.
Mavropanos cleared off the line from George Dobson with home goalkeeper Mads Hermansen beaten, which proved to be the closest Wrexham would come to a goal. Castellanos stayed onside and strode on to a through pass before unselfishly squaring the ball for Piroe to make it 2-0 before the break.
Patterson prevented Solomon from putting the game beyond Wrexham in the first two minutes of the second half, racing from his goal to smother the forward’s low shot. It would be a momentary reprieve and under a minute later it was 3-0. From Bowen’s corner, Mavropanos was left free inside the six-yard box to head home.
Bowen flashed a shot inches wide after cutting inside as the besieged visitors teetered on the edge of an all-out collapse in east London. West Ham’s fourth came from a Wrexham corner. A poor ball into the box was collected by Kyle Walker-Peters, who dashed away on the counter, exchanging passes before teeing up Castellanos to slot the ball into the corner.
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Kanté came off the bench and made it 5-0, a lovely rising finish after being sent clear by Solomon, then the Israel international completed the rout with a deflected shot via a post.
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