West Ham 1-0 Wolves
by Paul Donovan at the London Stadium

WEST HAM re-established their Champions League credentials with this hard fought victory over Wolves at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 

In a must win game, against close rivals, West Ham piled on the pressure from the start.

First, an Aaron Cresswell free kick from 20 yards out whipped wide of the right hand upright.

Tomas Soucek then found Michail Antonio with a through ball but the striker's shot was turned aside by Wolves keeper Jose Sa.

Declan Rice then saw his shot from outside the area rock back off the post 

A final move in the first half, involving Manuel Lanzini, Soucek and Antonio, saw Lanzini put his effort into the side netting. 

The high tempo continued in the second half, with West Ham finally getting the breakthrough, when an interchange between Pablo Fornals and Cresswell down the left, saw the ball come to Antonio who squared for Soucek to prod home.

Antonio epitomised West Ham's never say die attitude on the afternoon, constantly making runs and setting up chances. His lack of confidence,due to a shortage of goals recently, saw the big striker often look for the lay off, whilst on another occasion he may have driven on and taken the shot himself. But nonetheless he was a constant threat all afternoon, stretching the Wolves rearguard to breaking points. The goals will come, with this level of endeavour.

Wolves main threat came from Fabio Silva, who set up Francisco Trincao, who whipped his shot over the bar. Too often, though, much Wolves endeavour was snuffed out by West Ham's industrious covering play - with a number of moves ending up with the ball safely in the hands of Lukasz Fabianski, not offering a real threat.

One chance that fell to Hwang Hee-Chan outside the area saw an effort to place the ball go a few inches wide, through a crowd of players.

West Ham manager David Moyes was pleased with the result, though thought his team might have got a few more goals.

“We had good opportunities in the final 20 minutes but failed to take them,” said Moyes, who praised defender Kurt Zouma for an “exceptional” performance.

“We know the ability he has got and we're trying to help him. It's a difficult time and we all regret it,” he added.

The West Ham manager told how he had been looking to challenge himself and the staff, as to how to do things better. The challenge being to make West Ham a top four side.

He acknowledged that huge strides had been made in the last two years, with the challenge now being how to move on and grow more.

Wolves manager, Bruno Lage felt his team gave a good performance but that the goal conceded was unbelievable.

He does not feel his side is far from the Champions League places and will continue to compete for the points in every game to the end of the season.

“We need to fight for every point and be more aggressive," he said.