ADAMA DRAMA DING DONG
Traore puts Pelle in a pickle
TALK about West Ham’s bubble being well and truly burst.
After so much pre-season optimism surrounding big-spending West Ham, the alarm bells are once again ringing at the London Stadium.
Four successive defeats – this time thanks to Wolves substitute Adama Traore’s deserved last-gasp winner – piled on the misery for the Hammers.
Not since Avram Grant was in charge have West Ham suffered a similar nightmare start. Back then, in 2010-11, they finished rock bottom and they are once again gazing up from the gutter.
This was not the start West Ham’s owners David Sullivan and David Gold had in mind when they embarked on their £100million summer signing spree under new Premier League title-winning boss Manuel Pellegrini (left).
The Chilean worked his magic at Manchester City, but it was always going to be a tougher task here. He is now finding that out.
Pellegrini said: “I don’t think it is a bad start – it is a very bad start. We knew before the start of the season that we had some difficult games. But we didn’t think we’d lose six points from our two games at home.
“There’s no easy games in the Premier League. We must reduce our amount of mistakes.
“Everyone inside the club is calm. I think we have a strong squad and we will have better results in the future.”
As Pellegrini heads into the international break he could be forgiven for feeling twitchy.
This time last year Crystal Palace pulled the plug on Frank de Boer’s reign.
There is no question of a repeat scenario but with games looming against Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, the concern is that it could well get worse before it gets better. Not that this game was ever going to be a gimme. Newly promoted Wolves had already shown they belong at this level.
Here they just enforced that belief and they should have wrapped this game up long before Traore’s last-gasp strike.
West Ham had started well when Felipe Anderson brought a smart save out of Rui Patricio in the opening minutes. But Wolves soon found their feet.
Lukasz Fabianski kept out Matt Doherty’s shot but the West Ham keeper should have been beaten as Diogo Jota headed over in the 36th minute. Raul Jimenez then fired inches wide as the lacklustre hosts were booed off.
The ponderous Hammers could not get any worse after the break but they were still on the backfoot for large periods.
It took until the hour mark for Patricio to be called into action again, with the Wolves goalkeeper brilliantly clawing out Michail Antonio’s looping header following Andriy Yarmolenko’s cross.
But Wolves always looked the most likely out of the two teams.
The only problem was that the chances were falling to Mexico striker Jimenez. First
he headed straight at Fabianski and the Pole then foiled Wolves sub Leo Bonatini.
Then came Jimenez’s incredible 79th-minute miss, getting into an awful tangle after meeting Doherty’s cross and miskicking from six yards out. It looked easier to score.
An off-colour Marko Arnautovic almost made Jimenez pay two minutes later as he burst past Conor Coady but Patricio saved the ball with his face.
That looked as if it was going to be that until Carlos Sanchez was caught dozing on the ball by Ruben Neves.
Bonatini fed new signing Traore, who drilled the ball home with almost the last kick of the game.
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “The confidence comes from performances not results.
“And we deserved this win. Our attitude for from the start was to win the game.
“Adama still has to adapt and the team needs to recognise him better at what he can give us.
But it’s a special day.”