Raúl Jiménez bursts West Ham's bubble for upwardly mobile Wolves
PA Media
Date Publihsed: Sun 21 Nov 2021 09.49 GMT

Raúl Jiménez scored the only goal as Wolves brought West Ham's winning run to an end with a well-earned victory. The Mexican forward struck his third goal of the season in the 58th minute having been teed-up by Daniel Podence, who had twice been denied by good Lukasz Fabianski saves earlier in the second half.

The visitors were left frustrated in their efforts to fight back as a run of four successive Premier League victories was halted with a first away defeat since April. Wolves moved to sixth place.

West Ham's manager, David Moyes said: "I don't think we were quite at it. For the opening 20 minutes we probably had opportunities to maybe get in front, they then got control of the second half of the first half, and actually when the goal came I didn't think we were that far away from them."

After applause rang around the ground prior to kick-off in tribute to Ron Flowers following the former Wolves and England midfielder's death last week, iIt was West Ham who made the livelier start, with Jarrod Bowen shooting into José Sá's arms in the fourth minute.

Bowen then headed just wide from an Aaron Cresswell delivery, and Sá saved again as he caught Tomas Soucek's strike.

Wolves' first attempt came in the 20th minute when Rúben Neves drilled a low effort that Fabianski gathered, and eight minutes later Nélson Semedo put a shot wide.

Home cries for a penalty then proved in vain after Hwang Hee-chan's cross struck Ben Johnson on the arm, with the referee, Mike Dean, unmoved.

Moments later, Jiménez found himself clean through but was unable to get his dinked attempt on target, and as Wolves continued to pressurise, João Moutinho saw a strike tipped over by Fabianski.

West Ham then had the ball in the net just before the interval but Kurt Zouma's header was disallowed for a foul. Three minutes into the second half, Fabianski did well to get down and turn Podence's strike around a post, and the goalkeeper produced another fine save to thwart the Portuguese in the 56th minute.

Fabianski was finally beaten when Podence laid the ball to Jiménez, who swept the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

campaign to hit back saw Michail Antonio and Bowen fire off-target, while Max Kilman blazed a late effort into the stand at the other end.

Bruno Lage, the Wolves manager, said: "It was the challenge for today to be back, to play well, the way we play – when you play against a team like West Ham you need to do a good performance to win."

Moyes added: "If you expect us to be sort of on it every game, then we'll be having these questions more, quite a bit, because we're not going to be there, we're not at that level yet to play at the highest standards every single game this season."

Daily Mail: MATCH FACTS
WOLVES (3-4-3): Sa 6; Kilman 7.5, Coady 7, Saiss 7; Semedo 6, Neves 7.5, Moutinho 7, Ait-Nouri 7; Podence 7 (Traore 76), Jimenez 8, Hwang 6.5 (Dendoncker 87).
Subs not used: Ruddy, Hoever, Marcal, Trincao, Boly, Silva, Cundle.
Booked: Neves.
Manager: Bruno Lage 8.
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Fabianski 7.5; Johnson 6, Dawson 7, Zouma 5, Cresswell 6.5; Soucek 6, Rice 6.5; Bowen 7 (Yarmolenko 71, 6), Benrahma 5.5 (Vlasic 71, 6), Fornals 5 (Lanzini 59, 6); Antonio 6.
Subs not used: Areola, Coufal, Noble, Diop, Masuaku, Kral.
Booked: Rice.
Manager: David Moyes 6.
Referee: Mike Dean 5.
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