West Ham 3-0 Derby County
by Paul Donovan
at the London Stadium

THE home side were in charge from the kick-off, the only surprise being that they did not score more goals.

The game was just five minutes old when a deep cross from Jarrod Bowen on the right was headed back by Taty Castellanos, for Joel Piroe to drive into the roof of the net.

Bowen then saw his shot go just wide.

A Bowen corner saw Derby keeper, Jacob Widely Zetterstrom, pull off a great full stretch save to beat out a header from Konstantinos Mavropanos.

A nice exchange of passes between Divine Mukasa and Castellanos saw the latter fire just wide.

Then, a second half breakaway from Bowen, saw Mukasa cross but perfectly placed Manor Solomon shot straight at the keeper.

Derby’s best (and second) effort saw Lars-Jorgen Salvesen put his free kick wide of the post.

West Ham only wrapped the game up in the final ten minutes. Arne Engels got away on the right. His cross was skied by Bowen but reached substitute Edvin Austbo who scored his first goal for the club.

Then, in injury time, Mohamadou Kante picked up the ball in midfield, strode forward to fire home from just outside the penalty area.

West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo reflected on a positive week that has seen back-to-back home wins. He was pleased with the solid appearance of the team, which was reflected in the first clean sheet of the season. 

Though pleased, Espirito Santo wants to see much, much more.

Derby head coach John Eustace felt his team should have imposed themselves more in the second half. “We just lacked that bit of quality in the final third,” said Eustace, who acknowledged his team are “a work in progress.”