Gianluca Scamacca nets his first for West Ham in victory over Wolves
Gianluca Scamacca and Jarrod Bowen scored their first Premier League goals of the season to drag West Ham out of the relegation zone at the expense of Wolves.
Scamacca, the £30 million summer signing from Sassuolo, finally opened his account domestically with a fine strike from the edge of the area.
Bowen, who was picked for England’s last Nations League squad but failed to get on the pitch, then wrapped up a 2-0 win with some nimble footwork after the break.
Wolves boss Bruno Lage handed Diego Costa a 30-minute cameo as a substitute but the 33-year-old former Chelsea striker, signed as a free agent last month, could not prevent the division’s lowest goalscorers from slipping into the bottom three.
With Nathan Collins suspended for his wild challenge on Jack Grealish last month, Wolves skipper Ruben Neves was forced to drop into the unfamiliar role of central defender on his 150th appearance for the club.
The Portugal midfielder’s task for the evening was not made any easier when he picked up an early booking for a body-check on Bowen.
Bowen smelt blood and ran at the Wolves rearguard relentlessly with the type of performance that could yet earn him a place in the World Cup squad.
The visitors actually had eight Portuguese players in their starting line-up – a record for one nationality, other than English, in a Premier League team – and another of them, Daniel Podence, tried a long-range shot which Lukasz Fabianski tipped over.
MASSIVE performance from this man! ⚒️ pic.twitter.com/tVS3LqdAfL
West Ham should have gone ahead when Bowen’s shot was spilled by Jose Sa to the feet of Scamacca but the Italian striker scooped the rebound wide.
However, Scamacca made no mistake in the 29th minute after his pass found Bowen down