West Brom beat West Ham 3-1 to climb into Championship top four

West Brom moved into the Championship’s top four with a 3-1 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium on Saturday, increasing the pressure on home manager Nuno Espirito Santo. According to The Guardian’s Championship roundup, the defeat left West Ham eighth and six points behind the leaders after a second consecutive loss at home.

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Felix Horn Myhre gave Albion the lead after 20 minutes, finishing from close range while unmarked. It continued a recurring problem for West Ham, who had conceded the opening goal in nine of their previous 15 matches. They recovered before the interval when Jarrod Bowen’s shot went in via a deflection off Callum Styles, restoring parity ahead of the second half.

The home side’s recovery did not last. Within three minutes of the restart, Jimmy-Jay Morgan put West Brom back in front from the corner of the six-yard box. It was his fourth goal of the season, and it left West Ham having to chase the match again after they had cancelled out the visitors’ first breakthrough.

Styles then struck Albion’s third with a powerful shot that took a deflection after a corner from Price was only partially cleared. The goal came within two minutes of Kyle Walker-Peters leaving with a thigh injury, with West Ham having used all five substitutes. The visitors’ three goals left Nuno’s team with six conceded across their last two home matches.

Nuno acknowledged the pressure after the final whistle and said only winning matches would change the situation. He identified the recent home defensive record as something his side had to correct and stressed the importance of scoring first. West Brom, meanwhile, celebrated their rise in the standings with around 3,000 travelling supporters present, the report said.

Elsewhere in the promotion race, Middlesbrough retained top spot by beating Charlton 3-0 at the Riverside. Sebastian Berhalter opened the scoring in the 12th minute before Will Lankshear added two goals, taking his total for the season to 15 in all competitions. Southampton stayed fifth with a 4-1 victory over QPR, extending their unbeaten home league run to 17 matches.