David Moyes equalled his biggest win as West Ham manager despite not being at the London Stadium.
Moyes, self-isolating after his positive Covid-19 test, was in constant contact with the Hammers bench as they thrashed Wolves 4-0 in Sunday’s Premier League contest.
Coach Stuart Pearce was up and down the stairs more often than he was up and down the wing as a player as he answered the phone to Moyes.
It did the trick as two goals from Jarrod Bowen and further strikes from Tomas Soucek and substitute Sebastien Haller secured West Ham’s first points of the season in style.
Assistant boss Alan Irvine, standing in on the touchline again, said: “David was in communication with Stuart all the way through the game – quite a lot, in fact – and that information was passed down.
“The subs were David’s, I certainly wasn’t going to be doing anything. I relayed his messages to the players.”
Irvine is making interim management simple, with West Ham scoring nine and conceding only one since he stepped in for the Carabao Cup win over Hull.
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“It’s been enjoyable to be honest, from a selfish point of view to step up and deliver those messages to the players,” added Irvine, who will be in charge again at Everton in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie. Moyes is due back in work on Thursday.
Bowen opened the scoring with a fine finish after a quickly-taken free-kick from Pablo Fornals.
After the break Bowen tapped in the rebound after Fornals hit a post, Soucek headed the third and Haller wrapped up the scoring in added time.
Alan Irvine only felt relaxed when West Ham’s fourth goal went in (Mike Egerton/PA)
“It was tense for a lot of the time, but great once we got the fourth goal, then I felt I could relax,” said Irvine.
“It was a fantastic performance from start to finish, the players were outstanding.”
West Ham had not previously scored a single goal against Wolves since they returned to the Premier League.
Nuno Espirito Santo acknowledged it was a bad night in east London (Andy Rain/PA)
“It was a very bad performance, a bad game,” said Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
“A lot of things were wrong. Defensively we were not good. We were losing duels. and offensively we didn’t create.
“Every time West Ham attacked it was a chance of a goal. It was very disappointing. All the game was very bad.”
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