Graham Potter ignited his reign as West Ham manager after two first-half goals in the space of 131 seconds propelled him to his first victory in a helter-skelter 3-2 win over Fulham at the London Stadium.
Adama Traore missed a glorious chance to rescue a point for the visitors when he inexplicably skied from close range after good work from teenage substitute Josh King deep into stoppage time.
Potter’s first game in charge did not go to plan as the Hammers exited the FA Cup with a 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa in the third round on Friday but his side were the gleeful recipients of two goals from Fulham errors.
The West Ham boss, who replaced Julen Lopetegui last week, returned them to winning ways in his first home game as Carlos Soler pounced on an Andreas Pereira mistake to break the deadlock against the run of play (31).
By that point, Fulham had already struck the crossbar through Harry Wilson but they were soon two behind as Aaron Wan-Bissaka kept alive a cross from Guido Rodriguez to set up Tomas Soucek for a decisive second (33).
West Ham, who had lost three games in a row across all competitions – conceding a total of 11 goals – saw their lead halved when Alex Iwobi’s cross beat Lukasz Fabianski after Raul Jimenez went to play the ball (51).
It set the second half up for a sustained Fulham assault but a mistake from Bernd Leno under pressure from Danny Ings allowed Lucas Paqueta to re-establish the home side’s lead (67).
In keeping with West Ham’s season, they were unable to rest comfortably for too long, however, as another Iwobi cross evaded the touch from Harry Wilson to beat Fabianski in what was a carbon copy of his first (78).
The result means Potter’s side rise to 12th in the Premier League while Fulham stay in ninth place.
West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta scores their side’s third goal of the game
How Potter’s first win was gift-wrapped
Graham Potter applauds at the final whistle
Fulham boss Marco Silva will lament his side’s sloppiest performance of the campaign. For large parts of this contest, they were in control. West Ham scored their opening two goals from their first two shots of the match. When Raul Jimenez struck the crossbar moments after Soucek’s strike, however, you sensed it would not be their night.
Potter knows his side will have to be better than this in the coming weeks with more London derbies on the horizon, but he will be delighted by how his players showed resolve in the eye of the visitor’s perseverance in search of a point.
Carlos Soler scored his first goal in the Premier League
Iwobi breathed life into their hopes when his cross evaded Jimenez to outfox Fabianski just six minutes into the restart. But Silva could not hide his despair at Leno’s uncharacteristic error which ultimately allowed the hosts to pull away.
Ings, a replacement for Mohamed Kudus, chased down a lost cause to pounce on the sleeping stopper and provide Paqueta with an unguarded net. Relief for West Ham, who held on despite Iwobi’s repeated trick of beating Fabianski from a cross.
Fulham were the architects of their own downfall, compounded by Traore’s yawning miss at the death, on a night Potter’s first win was gift-wrapped.
Fulham were the authors of their own downfall
Potter: Our aggression forced the errors
Soucek scored 131 seconds after Soler’s opener
West Ham boss Graham Potter:
“I’m very, very happy with the result. The performance was one of high effort and high togetherness. It was far from perfect in terms of how we want to be in the long-term, but as a starting point there was a foundation.
“We started passive and couldn’t put enough pressure on Fulham but we changed that halfway through the first half with getting involved in a few more duels. There’s lots to do, but it’s a great start.
“They were gifts from our pressure. We forced the errors from our pressing and our aggression, trying to be on the front foot.
“If you don’t put pressure on them, there wouldn’t have been the errors. I thought we could have done better on their two goals too, but when you think of the players we are missing and the game we had on Friday night, I’m delighted with the three goals, the three points and the win.”
Silva: Penalised by our own mistakes
Alex Iwobi has scored more Premier League goals for Fulham (12) than he has for any other side. Meanwhile, Iwobi’s seven strikes in the Premier League this season is already his outright most across a single campaign in the competition
Fulham boss Marco Silva:
“We are penalised by our own mistakes and it is clear it is our fault that we lost the game. We created enough chances to have been in front and West Ham weren’t going around our box at all.
“We made a mistake in our build-up and we felt that mistake to lead to the second. We lost the first duel and then the second. We lost our principle for a few minutes.
“They played almost the whole second half defensively but we then gave another goal. Raul and Adama had two big chances to equalise so it is clear the result didn’t reflect what happened on the pitch. But we cannot make it so easy for a team to punish us.”
Potter working his magic – Opta stats
Tomas Soucek has scored 32 Premier League goals – since making his debut in the competition, only Jarrod Bowen (48) and Michail Antonio (41) have netted more for the Hammers
- Graham Potter has become the first West Ham manager to win his first ever home Premier League game in charge of the Hammers since Sam Allardyce in August 2012 vs Aston Villa (1-0).
- Fulham have lost their first Premier League game since November (vs Wolves) – ending the Cottagers’ longest unbeaten run in the competition (8 – W2 D6) since December 2008 (run of nine).
- Carlos Soler’s opening goal made him the 175th player to score for West Ham in the Premier League (excl. own goals), at least two more different scorers than any other side in the competition.
- Only Mohamed Salah (13) and Bukayo Saka (10) have provided more assists than Fulham’s Antonee Robinson in the Premier League this season (nine). Robinson’s nine assists in 21 league appearances this term is more than in his first two seasons in the competition combined (seven assists across 100 games).
