Fulham 5-0 West Ham: Marco Silva’s side crush Hammers at Craven Cottage thanks to Raul Jimenez, Willian, Tosin Adarabioyo, Harry Wilson and Carlos Vinicius goals
A boat full of West Ham fans taking the scenic route to Craven Cottage made a huge crash when it accidentally hit Hammersmith Bridge before kick-off. Luckily, the Grade II listed structure was strong enough to withstand the impact.
The same cannot be said about West Ham’s defence. There was no steel to be seen here. Just a failed attempt to secure a first clean sheet away from home in the Premier League this season.
Fulham games are practically guaranteed goals. There was a victory over Wolves with a score of 3:2, a defeat by Liverpool with a score of 4:3, and humiliation by Nottingham Forest with a score of 5:0. And now the defeat of West Ham, which demonstrated the confidence that reigns in Marco Silva’s team.
There were goals from Willian, Tosin Adarabioyo, Harry Wilson and Carlos Vinicius, but it was particularly pleasing to see Raul Jimenez score again. He now has four goals in his last five Premier League games, having previously limited his powers with a life-threatening skull fracture in 2020.
Jimenez and co fear no one and Fulham, who have lost their last 11 London derbies in the Premier League, move up to 10th with this win.
Fulham beat London rivals West Ham 5-0 to move up to 10th in the Premier League table.
Raul Jimenez continued his brilliant form to give the Cottagers the lead in the 22nd minute.
Brazilian Willian put the ball home from Alex Iwobi’s cross nine minutes later.
West Ham remain ninth and by kick-off the phrase “Moyes goes” was trending on social media. David Moyes will hope this was an isolated incident, not helped by the fact that his defense was exhausted. Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was injured, while left-back Emerson and defensive midfielder Edson Alvarez were too ill to play. Yet the ease with which Fulham broke through the visitors was extremely worrying.
West Ham could have taken the lead within five minutes if not for Bernd Leno. When Joao Palinha fouled Mohamed Kudoos 35 yards from goal, one suspected it was too far to shoot, even for James Ward-Prowse. How wrong we were.
Ward-Prowse hit the spot, hoping to tie David Beckham’s record of 18 free kicks in the Premier League, but Bernd Leno made the save.
From then on it was Fulham’s show. Jimenez’s delicate ball from behind found Willian in the 15th minute, but Lukasz Fabianski saved the shot – one of the few to stop there.
Fulham took the lead in the 22nd minute when Palinha crossed Jimenez between Nayef Agerd and Aaron Cresswell. Fabianski could only watch as the ball flew past him and the score became 1-0.
The score became 2-0 in the 31st minute when Agerd lost the ball while trying to play from behind. Silva’s men surged forward when Fabianski saved Alex Iwobi’s shot. The ball came back into the penalty area from Andreas Pereira. There was a swing and a miss from Iwobi but not from Willian as he found the far corner.
In the 39th minute, West Ham had a chance to pull a goal back and it was the man they trusted most who fell in front of goal. Jarrod Bowen has scored in a row in his last seven Premier League away games. He was their killer on the road. But Bowen volleyed wide of Leno as the Fulham goalkeeper comfortably collected the ball.
Tosin Adarabioyo’s powerful header was deflected and into the back of the net.
Harry Wilson scored his second goal of the week with a long-range strike into the top corner
Carlos Vinicius put the ball in after Wilson was sent off to seal the win
In the 41st minute the score became 3:0. How simple it was. Corner from Pereira, header from Adarabioyo, poor performance from Kurt Zouma.
Fulham have not won three Premier League games at home on the trot since 2012, but it would take a collapse on the scale of Devon Lough for them to miss out on this one.
In the second half, Moyes replaced Pablo Fornals with Emerson and Cresswell with Konstantinos Mavropanos. As you suspected, this was done to limit damage, as the 60-year-old Scot wore a face of fury in his technical field.
Fulham were immediately back in control of the game and Wilson should have scored when he rolled over Zouma but was unable to beat Fabianski. It was an easy chance.
A more difficult moment followed as Wilson scored from 25 yards to make it 4-0 in the 60th minute. This was the signal for some West Ham fans to head home.
They missed out on a 5-0 thrashing of Fulham as Wilson broke away before unselfishly allowing Vinicius to connect. West Ham looked for the offside flag, which never came. “European champions? You’re laughing,” sang the home support.
After the victory over Tottenham came the minimum defeat against Fulham. West Ham have work to do ahead of their Europa League clash with Freiburg on Thursday.
After the victory over Tottenham came the minimum of defeats against Fulham and West Ham.