Diego Costa chugged from a can of Red Bull on the substitutes’ bench, but it was Gianluca Scamacca and Jarrod Bowen who gave West Ham their wings here. With that, they fly out of the Premier League’s bottom three, leaving Wolves in it.
West Ham have been waiting for their £35.5million man to open his Premier League account and didn’t he just. Scamacca’s two touches – the first to flick up the ball, the other to bury it in the top corner – was an elite way to end his drought.
Bowen followed that up with his first league goal of the season, a nice response to not featuring for a single minute for England in the recent international break.
West Ham climbed out of the relegation zone after beating Wolves 2-0 at the London Stadium
New signing Gianluca Scamacca scored his first league goal for West Ham in the 29th minute
West Ham manager David Moyes is encouraging Bowen to play his way into Gareth Southgate’s plans via his club and clinical strikes such as this will do him no harm.
ay into Gareth Southgate’s plans via his club and clinical strikes such as this will do him no harm.
Costa did come on for Wolves but by that time, they were 2-0 down and staring at another defeat. Chances came his way but the former Chelsea striker, now 33 and having not played professional football since December 2021, was understandably rusty.
Wolves have scored only three Premier League goals this season, the lowest of any side. Something needs to change. Bruno Lage can only hope it isn’t his employment status.
Lage’s team selection threw up a few talking points.
One was that eight of Wolves’ starting line-up were Portuguese – a new record for a single nationality in a Premier League game, excluding English, of course.
Another was their captain, Ruben Neves, very much a midfielder, being used in central defence in light of Nathan Collins’s suspension and the sales of Willy Boly to Nottingham Forest and Conor Coady to Everton. It indicated that Lage does not yet trust Toti or Yerson Mosquera, both of whom were on the bench while Neves did his best impression of a centre back.
Neves embraced his rare role by crashing into Bowen, leaving him on an early caution.
Bowen was a constant nuisance and created a good chance when he cut inside before having a go with his left foot. His shot was parried by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa, though Scamacca could not finish the rebound under pressure from Jonny.
England star Jarrod Bowen doubled the Hammers’ lead with a fierce strike in the second-half
When Pedro Neto dropped down injured, Wolves needed to make a change. Adama Traore was warming up on the touchline while Costa was sitting on the substitutes’ bench, sipping his Red Bull. The snarling striker’s debut would have to wait.
On came Traore, but West Ham opened the scoring once the game restarted.
When Bowen’s attempt at driving into the box was denied, the ball fell to Scamacca. Twenty yards out, he sent a rasping shot beyond Sa. It drew audible admiration when replayed on the London Stadium’s big screen and rightly so.
As we approached half time, Wolves had gone 30 minutes since their last shot.
More was needed and Traore gave West Ham’s supporters a scare when he met a dropping ball in between Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek at the start of the second half. His half-volley was struck nicely but it bounced a yard wide, much to the relief of Lukasz Fabianski.
Bruno Lage’s side dropped into the drop zone having only recorded one victory all campaign
West Ham responded to this warning by ensuring the win would not be taken away from them. Thilo Kehrer’s blocked shot saw the ball fortuitously fall to Bowen. Taking it on his chest, he wrong-footed Rayan Ait-Nouri and buried the ball into the bottom corner beyond Sa.
Now 2-0 down, Lage introduced Costa, the striker appearing for the first time since a Brazilian Serie A game for Atletico Mineiro in December 2021. He hugged Kurt Zouma – his old Chelsea team-mate – and then proceeded to try to make the West Ham defender’s life uncomfortable.
Costa should have made it 2-1 in the 68th minute when Traore’s cross found him. He sent his header wide and knew that was their chance to get back into this game.
Diego Costa came on in the second-half and missed a glorious chance to reduce the deficit
In the 72nd minute, Wolves supporters were celebrating. Costa had crossed to Daniel Podence, who scored, then the assistant’s flag went up. Offside, confirmed VAR Peter Bankes.
Lage made further substitutions, to which the away support sang ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’. There is trouble at Wolves, a club that is drifting downward in the Premier League.
But West Ham can look upward after this, a win inspired by Scamacca and Bowen.
Wolves forward Daniel Podence saw his goal disallowed after Costa was adjudged offside
Take a look at Sportsmail’s live blog and relive all the action from the Premier League clash between West Ham and Wolves, written by Ben Willcocks.
