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.
More to follow…
