West Brom pile pressure on West Ham boss Nuno after comfortable away win
A second consecutive home defeat, in which his side have shipped six goals, contained few saving graces for Nuno, who faced the wrath of fans.
West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo was feeling the heat after West Brom’s stylish 3-1 win at the London Stadium left the Sky Bet Championship promotion favourites six points off the pace in eighth place.
A second consecutive home defeat, in which his side have shipped six goals, contained few saving graces for Nuno, who faced the wrath of fans on the final whistle.
Albion, slick and measured, moved into the top four with their 3,000 travelling fans revelling in the discomfort of Nuno, once manager of Black Country arch-rivals Wolves.
The Hammers’ bid to regain their Premier League status had already been undermined by patchy home form, notably the missed last-gasp penalties against Charlton and QPR which ultimately cost them three points and now the supporters’ patience is wearing ominously thin.
After falling behind in nine of their previous 15 games, the Hammers’ early anxiety was fuelled by Max Kilman’s scything foul on Ousmane Diakite at the expense of a yellow card.
The home side fashioned the first major chance, Edvin Austbo’s darting run setting up Mohammadou Kante, whose shot was deflected over the top by Jayson Molumby.
But after 20 minutes, West Ham were back in familiar territory, conceding first to a move of admirable simplicity.
Isaac Price’s pass carved the Hammers’ defence open and Jimmy-Jay Morgan’s low centre was meat and drink for unmarked Norwegian midfielder Felix Horn Myhre from point-blank range.
Moments later, Price should have made it 2-0 but spooned wide from eight yards, and the mood was already turning toxic inside half an hour among the claret-and-blue factions until fortune played a kind hand.
West Ham skipper Jarrod Bowen’s skimming low shot from an angle appeared to be covered by Albion goalkeeper Max O’Leary, but a telling deflection off Callum Styles smuggled it in off the near post.
Bowen’s seventh goal of the season was not enough to placate disgruntled Iron fans, who booed the Hammers off at the interval and within three minutes of the restart Albion were back in front.
Myhre cushioned Price’s left-wing cross into the path of Morgan, who was afforded the space to fire home his fourth goal of the season across home goalkeeper Mads Hermansen from the corner of the six-yard box.
Kilman’s header from a Bowen corner and Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot from distance were beaten out by O’Leary as the Baggies were finally made to weather some sustained pressure.
However within two minutes of Walker-Peters limping off with a thigh injury, and with Nuno using up all his five substitutes, Price’s corner was only half-cleared to Styles, lurking 20 yards out, and his fierce, deflected shot gave the stranded Hermansen no chance.
West Ham went through the motions of a fightback but, apart from substitute Taty Castellanos’ bicycle kick straight at O’Leary in added time, they rarely threatened to reduce the deficit.