West Ham 2 Wolves 1: Lopetegui relief, pressure increases on O’Neil and support for Antonio

On By Littum

After days of speculation over the futures of West Ham United manager Julen Lopetegui and his Wolverhampton Wanderers counterpart Gary O’Neil, this meeting between their teams was widely seen as crucial to both men’s respective job prospects.

Lopetegui has endured a difficult start to life at the London Stadium, so this win – thanks to goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen – will come as a huge relief.

Wolves had Soucek’s header canceled out when Matt Doherty struck and twice thought they might have had a penalty in the second half, but both VAR reviews found the home side’s advantage.

Defeat leaves Wolves in 19th place, four points adrift of safety and with O’Neil’s position increasingly precarious.

Tim Spiers, Roshane Thomas and Steve Madeley analyze the main talking points.

What does this result mean for managers?

This was dubbed El Sackico before kick-off, with both managers likely one defeat away from the sack … and with Wolves on the losing end, it’s hard to see how O’Neil keeps his job now.

The club have been looking for a new manager for some time, but wins over Southampton and Fulham bought O’Neil time. But heavy defeats by Bournemouth (4-2), Everton (4-0) and now a loss to West Ham have certainly made his position untenable.

It didn’t look like his players had downed tools – the effort was there, they rallied to score an excellent equalizer through the recalled Doherty and there was a late surge for another leveler in the closing stages, as well as a very good appeal against a sentence rejected.

But Wolves’ biggest problem is their weak, meek defence, highlighted again here by two soft goals for West Ham, particularly the first which saw Soucek’s tame header bounce apologetically onto the back post.

In a desperately quiet ending, there wasn’t much audible anger, just resigned apathy and indifference.

Wolves were eighth at the start of March and dreamed of Europe last season, but since then they have only beaten Southampton, Fulham, Luton Town and Burnley (in the Carabao Cup) and are now four points adrift of safety. O’Neil did a good job last season but under him they have conceded 103 goals in 53 league games.

As for West Ham and Lopetegui, this narrow win moves the team nine points clear of the drop zone, but the Spaniard remains unpopular and unconvincing and it remains to be seen whether he will last for next Monday’s trip to Bournemouth.

There were plenty of empty seats around the London Stadium at the final whistle in a desperately subdued atmosphere that reflected two teams, fan bases and managers awaiting the inevitable.

Tim Spiers

Bowen steps up when West Ham need him

This season, West Ham’s defensive vulnerability has been their undoing. They have kept just three clean sheets in 15 league games and it looked like it might cost them again when Doherty canceled out Soucek’s header.

But, as has so often been the case in recent seasons, Bowed stepped up when his team needed him and lifted his spirits to score his fourth goal of the campaign and secure a win that could earn his manager a stay in performance.

The result should not obscure what was an uninspiring first-half display from West Ham, just when they really needed a performance, culminating in a bit of booing from supporters at half-time.

But after the break they impressed offensively, with Bowen and Mohammed Kudus testing Wolves’ defence.

Kudus had an effort ruled out for offside, but in the end they held on. The manner of their second-half display will provide some encouragement for Lopetegui, but the question will now be whether it is enough to convince the club’s decision-makers that he deserves more time.

Roshan Thomas

How was West Ham affected by Antonio’s accident?


West Ham’s players warmed up in ‘Antonio 9’ shirts (Harry Murphy – Danehouse/Getty Images)

This was West Ham’s first game since striker Michail Antonio was involved in a car crash on Saturday in Coppice Row, Epping. The 34-year-old has undergone surgery on a broken lower limb and is recovering in a central London hospital.

His teammates wore ‘Antonio 9’ jerseys during the warm-up and kept them on when they walked onto the pitch at the start of the match. West Ham will auction the shirts, with each one signed by every member of the squad, including Antonio.

Antonio has long been a popular figure at the London Stadium and he received plenty of messages of support from current and former team-mates following the crash.

Here there was another support in the ninth minute, when fans stood to applaud him, with Lopetegui joining from the sidelines. Bowen held up a jersey with Antonio’s name on it after scoring the winner.

“It’s been a tough few days for all of us,” Lopetegui told Sky Sports before the game. “Luckily it was a miracle. There are more important things – the person, the father, the father, the brother, the son that he is. We’re happy that he got through the surgery he had yesterday and let’s see (how long) he stay. We spoke to him today, so we are happy for him despite the fact that he suffered a lot.”

Roshan Thomas

Wolves’ search for the winning formula continues

It was impossible to predict which team O’Neil would pick for what must have felt like a Hail Mary selection to save his job.

For much of last season, Wolves fans knew what to expect from an O’Neil team. Over the past month there has been a feeling that names have been drawn from a hat.

Clearly, that is not the case. But O’Neil’s desperate attempt to find a winning formula has seen all thoughts of consistent selection thrown out the window.

In the end, his lineup at the London Stadium came close to replicating what worked for large parts of last season – a 3-4-3 system, but with the flexibility to move to a back four at some point in the game.

Even then, there were some square pegs in round holes – Nelson Semedo on the right of the back three with Craig Dawson on the bench after his horror night against Everton at Goodison Park and Joao Gomes again in a strange, inside-right role in Wolves’ front three.

Throughout his reign, O’Neil has steered clear of playing an orthodox midfield three despite always having an array of central midfield talent at his disposal.

Did the selection work? Well, they managed to keep West Ham at bay for 54 minutes with the help of some mediocre finishing, but there was less threat in attack than in many recent games.

In the end, they conceded twice in typically soft fashion and only posed a sporadic threat in attack. It might have been similar to last season in basic form, but that’s where the comparison ended.

Steve Madeley

Wolves’ vulnerability after scoring strikes again

O’Neil has compared his side to an untamed horse for their inability to control their emotions, and the final months of his reign (if that’s what these turn out to be) will be remembered, among other things, for their repeated errors in consolidating after scoring.

Against Liverpool in September, Mohamed Salah scored the winner in a 2-1 defeat just five minutes after Rayan Ait-Nouri had equalised.

In a frantic opening period at Brentford in October, Wolves fell behind twice, leveled for the second time through Jorgen Strand Larsen on 26 minutes and closed again to Christian Norgaard on 28 and never recovered, eventually losing 5-3.

Against Crystal Palace in November, they battled back from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 through Joao Gomes on 72 minutes, only to concede a Marc Guehi equalizer five minutes later to draw 2-2.

And at the London Stadium, Doherty’s equalizer had them level for just three minutes before Kudus restored West Ham’s lead, with time still in between for VAR to reject penalty appeals for a challenge from Emerson on Goncalo Guedes.

At the end of it all, Wolves’ frustration boiled over, with Mario Lemina shaking and ending up fighting on the ground with Bowen. The Wolves midfielder went nose-to-nose with first-team coach Shaun Derry and was eventually dragged away down the tunnel.

Steve Madeley

What did Lopetegui say?

“We dedicate the win to Michail Antonio,” Lopetegui told Sky Sports.

“We deserved the three points. It’s much more than football. We were able to compete well and fight until the end. They drew (equalized) in the only action they had in the second half. We had very clear chances But the most important thing is that we won.

“We were strong with our mentality. We stayed in the game and took advantage. It’s a great goal from our captain. He’s a great player and a great professional. It wasn’t an easy week, believe me.”

What did O’Neil say?

O’Neil told Sky Sports: “People above me are supportive but the supporters want their club to be successful. I understand it’s my team and I have to take responsibility. But when I arrived at this club , they had just collected 39 points in the Premier League. Since then we have managed to make £200 million in player sales. We have sold an awful lot of Premier League players – if you go back to Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho Traore, Diego Costa, Raul Jimenez, Pedro Neto. We don’t trade in that market anymore. We try to find youngsters.

“I’m really proud of them. But I can only ask them to give what they give, and they give everything. They hate the position we’re in. And I’m right there with them. We’re not giving up and we continue to work.”

Speaking about the Lemina incident, he said: “Mario is calm now. He’s obviously a passionate guy. Something was said that upset him. So the instincts of all the staff and players were to try and make sure he didn’t get into problems and that we had him available for Ipswich.

“Obviously he calmed down at that moment, but everything is fine. Staff players, everyone understands that this kind of thing can happen, especially in the heat at the moment.

“Everyone at the football club is under a lot of stress and pressure at the moment. When I look back, and when Mario looks back, there might be things he would have done differently.

“But we know that everything Mario does comes from a place where he wants to do well for the club.

“It’s one of those incidents that nobody likes to see, but they happen. It shows that the team is still fighting and still together.”

What next for West Ham?

Monday 16 December: Bournemouth (A), Premier League, at 20:00 GMT, at 3 p.m. ET

What next for Wolves?

Saturday 14 December: Ipswich (H), Premier League, 15:00 GMT, 10:00 ET

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(Top photo: MB Media/Getty Images)