Soccer Football - Premier League - West Ham United v Fulham - London Stadium, London, Britain - January 14, 2025 West Ham United's Tomas Soucek scores their second goal Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
LONDON (Reuters) -West Ham United rode their luck to beat charitable London rivals Fulham 3-2 at the London Stadium in new manager Graham Potter's first Premier League match in charge on Tuesday.
A fluent Fulham side dominated the derby but failed to take their chances and gifted the hosts two goals, the second of which scored by Lucas Paqueta proved to be the winner.
Fulham, for whom Alex Iwobi scored twice, will wonder how they left pointless but Potter will not care as he enjoyed a victory on his home debut.
"It's a fantastic three points when you consider the players we've got missing," former Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea boss Potter, who replaced Julen Lopetegui last week, told TNT.
"It was a real team effort and we had to ride our luck at times and had to suffer but we scored three goals."
Victory lifted West Ham two places to 12th with 26 points while Fulham's first defeat in nine league games left them in ninth spot with 30.
Potter had been out of the game since he was sacked by Chelsea in April 2023, choosing to resume his career at West Ham. On arriving in east London he said it felt like Christmas and Fulham offered up some late presents.
WILSON VOLLEY
West Ham hardly got a kick early on and Harry Wilson thumped a volley against the crossbar for the visitors while Antonee Robinson should have done better than shoot wide.
The hosts took the lead when Fulham tried to play out from the back but Andreas Pereira's wayward pass across his own penalty area went straight to Carlos Soler who stylishly curled home his first goal for West Ham in the 31st minute.
It was completely against the run of play and Fulham were stunned again two minutes later when Tomas Soucek volleyed in from close range after a great pull back by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Iwobi reduced the deficit shortly after the interval when his cross aimed at Raul Jimenez's head deceived West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and went straight in.
But Fulham self-destructed again as keeper Bernd Leno was caught dawdling in possession by substitute Danny Ings who turned the ball to Paqueta to fire into an empty goal.
Iwobi again reduced the deficit with his second of the evening, an almost identical effort to his first, and Fulham laid siege to the West Ham goal in the closing stages but the hosts hung on grimly for a morale-boosting win.
Substitute Adama Traore spurned Fulham's best chance late on when he blazed over after a goalmouth scramble.
"When you make mistakes like we did, it's very difficult to win football matches," Fulham boss Marco Silva said.
"There was only one team that was on the pitch trying to win the game until we conceded that first goal that we gave them."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis and Ken Ferris)
