West Ham 3-1 Fulham

Fulham were beaten 3-1 by West Ham United on a controversial afternoon at London Stadium.

Andreas Pereira opened the scoring with an emphatic first goal for the Whites, but the hosts restored parity with a Jarrod Bowen penalty after Craig Dawson had run into Andreas in the box.

Gianluca Scamacca put his side in front after the break with a cool finish, but Fulham were aggrieved that it was allowed to stand despite the ball clearly hitting the striker’s arm in the build-up.

A stoppage time goal from Michail Antonio put some gloss on the scoreline for the Hammers, in a match that left a sour taste in the mouth of those of a black and white persuasion.

Marco Silva made four changes to the side that faced Newcastle United last week. Aleksandar Mitrović didn’t manage to recover from his knock, so there was a first start up top for Carlos Vinicius, Antonee Robinson returned from injury to replace Layvin Kurzawa, João Palhinha came in for the suspended Nathaniel Chalobah having served a ban of his own, while Neeskens Kebano came in for Kevin Mbabu. Harry Wilson was named on the bench for the first time this season.

Fulham went in front in outrageous fashion with the game’s first chance five minutes in. Vinicius started the move in his own half by feeding Kebano on the left, who in turn found Andreas’ forward run. The Brazilian carried the ball into the area and unleashed a venomous strike from a tight angle which had no right to beat Lukasz Fabianski, but the power caught the Polish stopper off guard and flew straight past him for 1-0.

Fabianski came out on top of the duo’s next battle four minutes later, though, beating away Andreas’ free-kick after Kebano had been fouled in a wide position.

The Whites had started brilliantly and Dan James was desperately unlucky not to join Andreas in opening his account for the Club when his left-footer from 20 yards out came back off the bar.

West Ham threatened for the first time in the 17^th minute when the ball dropped kindly for Scamacca from Tosin’s attempted clearance. The Italy international did everything right, but Bernd Leno made a fine reflex save to repel his downwards header.

Scamacca then threatened again after being slipped in by Lucas Paqueta, but dragged his low shot wide of the far post.

And when he did find the target again, getting a firm head on Aaron Cresswell’s cross, Scamacca found Leno at his best once more, denying the Hammers forward from point blank range.

There was nothing the Fulham goalkeeper could do to prevent the equaliser, though, with Bowen converting from 12 yards after referee Chris Kavanagh deemed a coming together between Andreas and Dawson to be worthy of a penalty.

Andreas was at the heart of the action and went close to putting his side back in front direct from a corner, but Fabianski was able to palm away from underneath his crossbar.

United threatened within a minute of the second half with a cheeky effort from Paqueta as he looked to catch Leno out at his near post, but the Fulham number 17 was alert to the danger and smothered the shot.

That was followed with off target efforts at either end from Scamacca and James, respectively.

After a bit of a lull in proceedings, West Ham went in front through a lovely Scamacca lob after he was fed by Paqueta. The striker came through two VAR checks unscathed – for offside and handball – but eventually the goal was given.

Vinicius had battled throughout the game without getting much of a sniff on goal, but a half chance presented itself with 20 minutes to go, the forward’s snapshot fizzing wide of the near post.

Tom Cairney was brought on in the midfield for a booked Harrison Reed and almost nabbed an equaliser within moments as he connected with Robinson’s cutback, only to see his goalbound strike blocked by Cresswell.

As five minutes of stoppage time were announced, any hopes of a Fulham comeback were extinguished when West Ham substitute Antonio took advantage of a fortuitous scramble in the box. The striker had seen his initial shot saved by Leno, but a coming together between the goalkeeper and Tim Ream saw the ball bobble back to Antonio who was left with a simple finish to put the game to bed.

Replays showed a clear handball by Antonio in the lead up, just to rub some final salt into Fulham wounds.