West Ham United moved to the top of the Championship after demolishing Wrexham 6-0 at London Stadium.
Jarrod Bowen and Joël Piroe put the Hammers in control before half-time before Konstantinos Mavropanos, Taty Castellanos, Mohamadou Kanté and Manor Solomon completed a ruthless second-half rout.
Six different players found the net as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side recorded a fourth consecutive league victory.
The result moves West Ham onto 14 points and above West Bromwich Albion ahead of the remainder of the weekend’s Championship fixtures.
Bowen and Piroe put West Ham in control
Nuno made five changes from Tuesday’s 3-2 victory at Bolton, with Morato handed his first West Ham start and Castellanos returning from injury.
Our West Ham vs Wrexham confirmed line-ups had all of Nuno’s changes before kick-off.
West Ham eventually made their superiority count after 28 minutes.
Bowen continued his excellent start to the season by opening the scoring and giving the hosts the breakthrough they deserved.
Piroe doubled the advantage nine minutes later.
The Suriname international had returned to the starting XI after beginning the Bolton victory on the bench and made his opportunity count to send West Ham into half-time 2-0 ahead.
Mavropanos starts West Ham second-half rout
Any hopes Wrexham had of producing a comeback disappeared almost immediately after the restart.
Mavropanos struck in the 48th minute to make it 3-0, continuing his remarkable scoring run after also heading home at Bolton earlier in the week.
West Ham did not stop there.
Castellanos marked his return from injury with the fourth goal after 63 minutes.
The Argentina international had missed the Bolton victory and was considered a fitness doubt heading into Friday night’s game, but Nuno immediately restored him to the starting XI.
Read West Ham had tracked Castellanos’ recovery ahead of Wrexham before his return was confirmed.
Kanté and Solomon complete six-goal demolition
Kanté added West Ham’s fifth after 76 minutes.
The young midfielder had started on the bench following Nuno’s rotation but made another impact after scoring his first senior West Ham goal against Derby County last weekend.
Solomon then completed the rout six minutes later.
His 82nd-minute goal made it six different scorers on a remarkable evening at London Stadium.
It was also another clean sheet after West Ham had shut out Derby in their previous home Championship game.
The Hammers have now beaten Wolves, Derby, Bolton and Wrexham in succession, scoring 16 goals across those four victories.
Friday’s win also gives West Ham four consecutive league victories for the first time since November 2021.
West Ham go top of the Championship
West Ham began the evening second in the division on 11 points, two behind West Brom.
Three more points move Nuno’s side onto 14 and send the Hammers provisionally top before Saturday’s fixtures.
Our West Ham Championship table will track the promotion race throughout the season.
Attention now turns briefly to the Carabao Cup, with Fulham visiting London Stadium on Tuesday night before West Ham return to Championship action away at Millwall.
Every upcoming match can be found on our West Ham fixtures and results page.
