MOHAMMED KUDUS is sitting pretty at the London Stadium.
The wonderful West Ham winger propped himself up on the advertising hoardings in Stratford in front of furious Wolves fans after two fine first half goals set the Hammers on the way to the top seven.
Jarrod Bowen capped the afternoon off with his tenth Premier League goal of the season on 74 minutes.
Kudus and Lucas Paqueta, who laid on a hat-trick of assists, were the shining lights in a performance which further eased the pressure on manager David Moyes following last week’s 5-0 humbling at Fulham.
This could prove to be a defining week for the Scot, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
Thursday’s win against Freiburg secured top spot in their Europa League group and a place in the last 16, while they face Liverpool on Wednesday for a place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Having gone strong on Thursday night, Moyes made just one change with captain Kurt Zouma returning to the back line.
The Scot stuck with Lukasz Fabianski in goal despite first choice Alphonse Areola being available.
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil was forced into a change between the sticks thanks to a shoulder injury to Jose Sa as Dan Bentley came back into the side.
Bentley had to be alert early on as Jarrod Bowen’s in-swinging corner almost sneaked under the crossbar, with the Wolves stopper just tipping over.
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After frustration from fans over West Ham’s pragmatic style of play were answered with the Feigburg performance in midweek, the Hammers picked up where they left off.
West Ham had won four corners inside 20 minutes having piled on the pressure early, but it was from a Wolves corner that they found an opener.
Emerson cleared a header from former Hammer Craig Dawson off the line to start a sharp break.
Edson Alvarez, who recovered from a hip problem to start, moved the ball forward to Paqueta who did well to beat Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to the ball before setting Kudus free down the right.
The winger, dubbed “The Wizard” by West Ham’s announcer before kick-off, drove inside and unleashed a superb low strike from the edge of the box – his fourth Prem goal of the season.
His fifth followed soon after. Wolves had tried to respond through Matheus Cunha’s effort, though Fabianski managed to tip wide.
And then Kudus struck again, once more wonderfully played in by Brazilian playmaker Paqueta before firing low across Bentley to double the lead.
It has been a while since West Ham, with or without a recognised striker, have looked quite so clinical.
But Kudus is deadly when he gets a sight of goal. He will be a huge miss when he is whisked away to the Africa Cup of Nations in January.
His efficient touch in front of goal was only matched by Paqueta’s grace throughout. West Ham fans should appreciate both while they can.
There were still a few shaky moments at the back to offer Wolves some hope, but there is an increased confidence about the Hammers who managed to hold firm and stop the visitors from scoring for the first time since the opening day of the season.
Bowen almost rounded off a perfect first half when his low effort struck the foot off the post, only to ricochet across the mouth of the goal and bend around the other post behind for a goal kick.
A third would have killed things, but at two back Wolves were still in with a shot after the restart.
Pablo Sarabia thought he had halved the deficit when tapping in Nelson Semedo’s cross to cap a flowing mood.
But a lengthy VAR check, which was protested by both sets of fans, showed the Spaniard to be a fraction offside.
That was the way things were going for Wolves – just not quite coming off.
Cunha was giving his all to get the visitors back into things, but followed a string of step-overs with a shot over Fabianski’s bar.
Having fluffed their chances to get back into the game, Bowen delivered the coup de grace.
One fan in the stands had travelled all the way from Hong Kong to see the winger, so it would hardly have been fair for him to disappoint.
Moyes had shifted the England man back to his preferred role on the right with Paqueta moving up top and it paid off immediately.
Tomas Soucek won possession easily in the West Ham half and laid off to Bowen, who exchanged passes with Paqueta before racing in behind down the right and rolling low beyond Bentley, who should have done better.
Things could have got even better for West Ham on 80 minutes when a James Ward-Prowse free-kick whistled past the near post – but the Hammers will have been more than happy with their afternoon’s work.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
