Crystal Palace 0 West Ham 2: Julen Lopetegui gets first win as Hammers boss as Soucek and Bowen sink London rivals
IN a window where Crystal Palace stars appear to be fleeing Selhurst Park – a former hero coming back to hurt them was not needed.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent on for his West Ham debut five years after leaving Selhurst Park and quickly played a big role in the opening goal.
It would hardly have settled the nerves for Palace fans who have already seen Michael Olise and Joachim Andersen depart and fear Marc Guehi and perhaps Eberechi Eze could follow.
Boss Oliver Glasner admitted this week that transfer noise was having an influence on some of his players, though there was little sign of that during a fine first half in which it looked like the hosts would be comfortable winners.
But West Ham’s improved depth and a half-time rocket in the rain brought about a better second half and their first win under Julen Lopetegui, as Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen grabbed two goals in five minutes to make it two defeats from two for Palace to start the season.
In this fixture last season – which effectively put the final nail in the coffin for David Moyes at West Ham – the Hammers were four down after just 31 minutes.
That was not the case this time around, but Palace could and probably should have had two inside the opening 20 minutes.
Lopetegui’s side underwhelmed against Aston Villa last weekend but he stuck with the same XI in South London.
Despite having a couple of early openings, with Mohammed Kudus firing wide from 12 yards, the Hammers looked wide open.
Alphonse Areola made a fine one-on-one stop from Eze after Adam Wharton found the midfielder with a defence-splitting pass.
The England midfielder took just two weeks off in the summer and has continued the superb form which got him a late run into the Euros squad.
Moments after finding Eze, he had the Eagles on the front foot in a flash once more with a first time forward pass from his own half.
It resulted in Odsonne Edouard getting through but he fluffed the finish and put it wide of the far post.
West Ham have a forward line packed with talent, but were struggling to get the ball to any of them in threatening positions.
Pinned back by Palace, they were hanging on going into the break as Eze rattled the crossbar with a bending effort from the edge of the box minutes before the interval.
Lopetegui gave his players a talking to in the rain outside the away dressing room before sending them back out.
And West Ham improved after the break, though they were still lacking a cutting edge, so Lopetegui turned to new boys Niclas Fullkrug and Wan-Bissaka.
The Spaniard would certainly have expected the big German striker to have made more of an impact up top, but it was ex-Palace man Wan-Bissaka who sparked this win.
The Eagles academy graduate showed plenty of life flying down the right, which was how the first goal came about.
After a fine run down the flank, the £15million debutant found Bowen who crossed for Lucas Paqueta.
A couple of loose touches and dodgy clearances later the ball fell kindly for Tomas Soucek to ram home.
It may not have been deserved considering the flash football Palace had played in the first half, but suddenly the Hammers had their tails up and the hosts looked shaky.
There were gaps opening up in Glasner’s side and another new man – Max Kilman – strode straight into one.
The defender charged forward across halfway before picking out a stellar ball for Bowen to run onto.
The England man drove inside before placing a superb reverse finish in the near post.
Palace had the chance to quickly halve the deficit as new signing Ismaila Sarr picked out Jean-Philippe Mateta just yards out but he somehow failed to finish.
All the fine momentum Palace had built across a brilliant end to last season seems to have been lost in the space of just one week.
THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..
The Sun is your go to destination for the best football, boxing and MMA news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSunFootball and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunFootball.