West Ham blow Wolves away to send shivers down spines at Spurs and their other relegation rivals

Big,big night on the way : Picture by Capital Football

Premier League

West Ham United (1) 4 Mavropanos 42, 83 Castellanos 66, 68

Wolverhampton Wanderers (0 0

This was the one that really felt like win or bust.

The league table may not yet be ready to reveal the final standings but there is little doubt a defeat here could have proved terminal to West Ham's chances. Instead, what was only a fourth home win of the campaign may just be the start of something amazing for them in the battle for survival.

They are out of the bottom three at the expense of Spurs - albeit having played a game more - and can feel the tantalising allure of hope. There were two goals each for Taty Castellanos and Konstantonos Mavropanos - an unlikely hero who is starting to become something of a cult hero.

The Hammers were nervy as you'd expect at the start, but had hope in the shape of returning duo Crysencio Summerville and Mavropnaos - who both missed last weekend's FA Cup loss to Leeds through injury.

And although Summerville had the first real chance for the Hammers, it was the big Greek defender who broke the deadlock with a vital header just before the break - Jarrod Bowen the provider with a perfect angled left foot cross from the right.

And with a new-found spring in the step, Pablo almost drilled a low shot past Jose Sa.

Two strikes of the post - one for each side - raised the temperature as the Irons bedded down for a vital second half that they ended up dominating. First, Angel Gomes rattled the woodwork for Wolves with a free-kick from the edge of the area that he himself won after being tugged back by Castellanos .

At the other end, Bowen smacked the far post with a beautiful effort - to compound the frustration he was no doubt already feeling about two similar pieces of bad luck against Leeds.

In between those two incidents, Summerville broke away after the Gomes free-kick and tried his luck from distance because Sa was way off his line - but the effort was wide. He might have used Castellanos to his left but attempted the spectacular.

It didn't matter. A quickfire double from Castellanos quickly alleviated all the stress and had Stratford bouncing.

First Summerville intercepted to create panic in the Wolves defence and a clever backheel from Pablo opened up the space for the Italian to poke into the far corner.

Then, almost straight from the restart, he found the net again - this time his low shot pinging in off a post after Bowen had found him once more on the edge of the 18-yard line.

The London Stadium was to erupt once more when Mavropanos twisted inside the area to plant a low shot into the net from a corner to make it four.

And had Adama Traore had a decent finish in his locker it would have been five - the sub clipping a ball wide of the target when clean through. But the now-rampant Irons had done the job.

Early on, Summerville lifted an angled shot over the bar after latching on to a clever chip from Mateus Fernandes. Bowen stubbed a shot at keeper Sa and Tomas Soucek's first-time scoop from an Axel Disasi pass drifted just wide.

But Wolves looked way more relaxed in their movements in the opening 45 minutes - as befits a team whose fate at the bottom of the table is effectively already sealed. Adam Armstrong glanced a header that Mads Hermansen had to watch carefully.

There was no signpost to indicate the way this one was going to go - other than a nagging suspicion it might end badly for Nuno Espirito Santo's men. How wrong those first-half signs turned out to be.

Hammers: (4-2-3-1) Hermansen - Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Disasi, Diouf - Soucek, Mateus Fernandes (Magassa 85) - Bowen, Pablo (Potts 78), Summerville (Traore 78) - Castellanos (Wilson 82)

Wolves: (3-5-1-1) Jose Sa - Mosquera (Arokodare 71), Santiago Bueno, Krejci - Tchatchoua, Bellegarde (Mane 61), Andre, Joao Gomes (Edozie 85), Hugo Bueno - Angel Gomes (Rodrigo Gomes 61) - Armstrong (Hee-Chan 71)