Wolves 1 West Ham 2
Well, West Ham were owed some luck with VAR after that ignored handball and dodgy penalty against Sheffield United, the blatant handball away to Freiburg, Ings' disallowed goal and the ignored handball against Burnley, and those two disallowed goals against Aston Villa. Ruling out Kilman's 99th minute equaliser for Wolves was harsh, if technically correct, and you can understand why Gary O'Neil was so incensed. Still, we'll take the win and VAR didn't go for us earlier in this game either.
It was a classic game of two halves with Wolves dominating the first and taking the lead with Sariba's penalty, though to my mind Emerson got a nick on the ball before Ait-Nouri fell to the ground. Doyle also goes close for the home side. The Hammers' only chance comes when Soucek treads on the ball after being set up by Bowen.
West Ham improve dramatically in the second half with Antonio coming on for Soucek and Johnson replacing Coufal. Should Moyes have played Antonio from the start? Caution got the better of him, though it has to be said Paqueta, Bowen and Kudus looked effective as a trio before Christmas and there's no rule against keeping it tight in the first half in away games. When Bowen has to go off suffering a dead leg Moyes brings on Aaron Cresswell and moves Emerson into midfield, a move which brings dividends.
Emerson had a seemingly good header disallowed for what seemed no more than a coming together with the Wolves man. But the equaliser comes when Emerson's cross is handballed by Max Kilman and Paqueta strokes home the penalty.
Antonio makes a difference and Ben Johnson has a volley well saved by Sa. An unlikely winner arrives when James Ward-Prowse's corner drifted over Sa directly into the net, ably assisted by Storm Kathleen.
The downside is Bowen going off injured. But as this stage of the season any win is welcome and it's also our first double against a PL club. While on 48 points we're definitely safe...
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