Key events
26 min: Cunha gets in on the action, finding a pocket of space outside West Ham’s area, and boots a decent effort at Fabianski’s near post. The Polish keeper saves.
24 min: I have always thought Bowen was quick for someone that hails from Hereford, but the skuttling forward latches onto a loose ball inside Wolves’ penalty box, beating Toti easily for pace, before driving a fierce low shot at Johnstone, who saves well with his feet.
22 min: We have barely seen anything from Cunha, Wolves’ talisman.
20 min: A first real foray in numbers for Wolves, which ends with Gomes pinging a shot straight into the belly of Fabianski.
18 min: In a move that is VERY Sunday League, Summerville is being made to remove his undershirt, which is apparently clashing with the rest of his kit.
15 min: “I’m on the sofa near Molineux,” emails Peter Higginson. “If Gary O’Neill can drink 20 teas a day, I can eat 20 meatballs, as I am doing. Predicting a Wolves loss and Gary gone by tomorrow.”
Twenty meatballs! Peter! I am in awe.
Sort of reminds me of superpedjason on Instagram, who is also a marvel of a man.
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
13 min: Excellent work from Lemina to track back and steal the ball off a bounding Bowen, who was striding forward with intent. The Gabonese is a very useful footballer for Wolves.
11 min: Summerville, out on that left wing for West Ham, has looked very bright. Bowen is playing as the central striker for the hosts, by the way, with Kudus on the right, but tucked in to allow Wan-Bissaka to break forward from right back (just as he did at Newcastle).
9 min: A round of applause goes up around the stadium for Antonio, who wears the No 9 shirt for West Ham. There are Jamaica flags in the stands, too. Antonio will hopefully be watching this from the hospital and buoyed by that.
7 min: Wolves concede a cheap free kick right on the left touchline. They have conceded 13 goals from set pieces this season, the worst record in the Premier League by a distance. West Ham’s Summerville whips a dangerous ball to the front post, but Alvarez misses his flick off. The Mexican should have done better.
4 min: West Ham have settled well. Wolves haven’t really had a kick yet.
2 min: A few home fans in the stands are showing their Antonio shirts in support of the crocked striker.
Peeeeeeeeeeep! Play gets underway, as bubbles float gently across the pitch.
The teams are out! West Ham in their claret and blue, Wolves in their old gold. It’s nice not to see the two teams are they are meant to be.
Just on Gary O’Neil drinking 20 cups of tea a day, I’m also concerned about the amount of time he’s spending in the toilet. If an average mug of tea is 300ml, and he’s drinking 20, that’s six litres/a lot of liquid.
“Am hoping that when Lopetegui eventually gets given the tin tack that Mark Noble is given the manager’s gig,” emails Ian Burch. “Local boy, club legend, Sullivan loyalist, will turn down the offer of a club car so he can travel to home games on the bus, used to dealing with irate Hammers fans invading the pitch and can instil discipline in the squad by coming up with a rota for the players to sweep up the dressing room after matches. He can also be relied upon to re-instate liquor on the players pre-match meal of pie and mash, a ban which lost Lopetegui the dressing room on day one”.
Should reiterate that West Ham’s performance against Leicester, at least offensively, was not bad at all. They had 31 shots, with an xG of 3.1. No team has had more and gone on to lose the game in more than seven years.
Lopetegui speaks!
On Antonio:
The more important thing is that the person, the father, the son, the brother that he is, is OK. We talked with him today.
On Wolves:
Our approach is to do well against a good team. It’s not going to be an easy task. After we lost at Leicester, there were a few positives but the most important thing is the match today.
Is it possible to ‘lose the dressing room’ based upon your caffeine intake? Absolute headloss here, surely.
Not every Wolves fan has taken this tea revelation well.
“No wonder we’re so [awful] if our manager spends all his waking hours stood by a [bleeding] kettle”, tweeted one supporter on Friday.
Feels very odd that Lopetegui has left Paqueta on the bench again, particularly as he did so for West Ham’s last outing, a 3-1 defeat at Leicester. That scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story – the Hammers were very good in large periods – but ultimately weren’t clinical enough. West Ham have other creators in Kudus, Bowen and Summerville but Paqueta omission is glaring once again. It’s also interesting that despite Antonio’s accident, Füllkrug still doesn’t get a starting berth tonight.
Wolves make three changes from the XI that lost heavily at Everton, which is hardly a surprise. Johnstone, Semedo and Toti all come into the line-up. Where is José Sa? In last season’s Premier League, the Portuguese had the best goals prevented numbers of any goalkeeper based on Opta’s expected goals on target faced metric. He’s had an inconsistent season this campaign, and clashed with Wolves supporters following the 4-2 home defeat to Bournemouth earlier this month. Hwang is a quality option on the bench, even if he has yet to fire properly this season due to form and fitness.
The teams!
West Ham: Fabianski, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson Palmieri, Alvarez, Soucek, Kudus, Soler, Summerville, Bowen.
Subs: Areola, Cresswell, Coufal, Lucas Paqueta, Fullkrug, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez, Todibo.
Wolves: Johnstone, Lemina, Bueno, Toti Gomes, Nelson Semedo, Andre Trindade, Joao Gomes, Doherty, Cunha, Ait Nouri, Larsen.
Subs: Bentley, Hwang, Dawson, Rodrigo Gomes, Doyle, Forbs, Bellegarde, Goncalo Guedes, Pedro Lima.
Referee: John Brooks (Leicestershire)
Preamble
Last week, a struggling side near the bottom of the table faced Wolves at home … and came through to win 4-0. How Everton needed that victory, particularly when you consider the Toffees’ next three games are against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, with the re-arranged Merseyside derby also surely in the not-too-distant future.
A good win for Everton, but a bad defeat for Wolves, who remain 19th. Their festive run is not nearly so difficult as Everton, although the upcoming games against West Ham, Leicester and Ipswich before Christmas are arguably more important in deciding whether Wolves will avoid relegation come the end of the season.
West Ham, despite appointing Julen Lopetegui in the summer and spending well over £100m in the transfer market, are another club nervously looking over their shoulder. Performances have fluctuated wildly of late, and the job security of both Lopetegui and Wolves’ Gary O’Neil remains in the balance. Some have even gone to far as to label tonight’s game as ‘El Sackico’.
Much of the focus before this match has understandably been on Michail Antonio, the West Ham forward who was involved in a horrific car crash on Saturday. After initial concerns that it could have been a lot worse, it was a relief to hear the 34-year-old was “conscious and communicating” as he was taken to hospital. Antonio had surgery on a broken leg on Sunday, and is expected to be out for at least a year, although it remains unclear if the Jamaica international will play again. It is bemusing whether to feel devastated or relieved for Antonio but the accident will surely have sent shockwaves around the West Ham squad, of which the striker was such a big part.
Regardless of the Antonio news, this is a huge game for West Ham and their manager. Oh, and a big one for Wolves and Gary O’Neil, too.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
