Hammers: Happy birthday, boss
After four straight losses, West Ham finally collected their first Premier League points of the season on manager Manuel Pellegrini’s 65th birthday.
“I was worried about the game,” Pellegrini said after yesterday’s 3-1 victory at West Ham, “because I was absolutely convinced we must win.”
He can thank Andriy Yarmolenko for his two-goal present.
The former Borussia Dortmund winger scored only three times in the Bundesliga last season.
The Ukrainian netted twice in the opening 31 minutes of his first Premier League start.
After Cenk Tosun conceded possession inside West Ham’s half, the ball was quickly played over the top to release Marko Arnautovic, who squared for the unmarked Yarmolenko to complete the counter-attack with an 11th-minute opener.
Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s poor clearance helped gift West Ham a second goal 20 minutes later.
Captain Mark Noble fed the ball to Yarmolenko, who cut in from the right and curled the ball into the far corner of the net.
“Everybody did an unbelievable job, even the midfielders were everywhere,” Arnautovic said. “And then it’s down to us to score goals and win games.”
After substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson pulled one back before halftime, Arnautovic slid in West Ham’s third in the 61st to complete the victory that eased the pressure on Pellegrini.
“I see the players working every day and maybe in matches we haven’t been able to perform like that but we must be able to repeat it during games, under pressure or with bad comments about our performances,” said Pellegrini, who won the title with Manchester City in 2014.
Everton lost for the first time under Marco Silva.
Meanwhile, wayward finishing could prove costly for promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Although Wolves secured their second victory in five games yesterday, when Raul Jimenez’s strike sealed a 1-0 victory over Burnley, the scoreline didn’t reflect their dominance.
“We should be more clinical,” Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo said. “It is one of the things that we need to work on and improve.
“We have another clean sheet, which is the most important aspect of the game for me, but the other part of the game is to produce and create. The players will work on the last touch and things will come.”
Wolves have eight points from five games.
But Burnley, with All Whites striker Chris Wood playing the last 20 minutes, are now bottom of the table with just one point from their first five games. Their poor league form could be at least partly attributed to a Europa League campaign which saw the side play six games in July and August.