West Ham United’s Mohammed Kudus, left, celebrates scoring with teammates during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers at the London Stadium, London, Sunday Dec. 17, 2023. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Kudus struck twice in 10 first-half minutes at London Stadium and Jarrod Bowen rounded off the win after the break for West Ham against a hapless Wolves unit, while Late goals from Alex Moreno and Ollie Watkins secured a dramatic late victory for Unai Emery’s high-flying Villa at Brentford.
1Mohammed Kudus scored two goals as West Ham beat Wolves 3-0 in the Premier League on Sunday.
Kudus struck twice in 10 first-half minutes at London Stadium and Jarrod Bowen rounded off the win after the break.
The victory provisionally moved West Ham up to seventh in the table, above Manchester United, who were playing Liverpool in the day’s later kick-off.
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Kudus had scored against Freiburg on Thursday as David Moyes’ team topped its Europa League group.
He fired West Ham ahead in the 22nd minute after quick break away, shooting with his left foot from around 25 yards (meters) after Lucas Paqueta’s pass. He doubled the home team’s lead 10 minutes later, this time with his right foot after another assist from Paqueta.
Pablo Sarabia thought he had cut West Ham’s lead in the 58th, but his goal was ruled out for a marginal offside by VAR.
Paqueta completed a hat trick of assists as Bowen made it 3-0 in the 74th by finishing in the corner for his 10th goal of the season.
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Aston Villa beat Brentford
Ollie Watkins scored the winner and upset fans at his former club with his goal celebrations as Aston Villa beat Brentford 2-1 to provisionally move second in the Premier League.
Villa is one point behind leader Arsenal and a point above third-place Liverpool, which hosts Manchester United later Sunday.
Late goals from Alex Moreno and Watkins secured a dramatic late victory for Unai Emery’s high-flying Villa at Brentford after Bees defender Ben Mee had been sent off 20 minutes from time.
Keane Lewis-Potter had opened the scoring for the hosts at Gtech Community Stadium but the game turned on its head after Mee was dismissed for flying into Leon Bailey in the 71st minute — referee David Coote upgrading to a red card after seeing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
Moreno equalized in the 77th minute with Watkins completing the turnaround eight minutes later, before Villa midfielder Boubacar Kamara was also shown a red card deep into stoppage time for violent conduct.
Watkins’ winner came after Jacob Ramsey’s corner got a fortunate flick-on and former Brentford striker Watkins headed home before celebrating in front of his old fans.
The celebration caused an on-field melee, with the referee brandishing yellow cards to Villa’s Ezri Konsa and Brentford’s Saman Ghoddos before Kamara was dismissed following a scuffle with Yehor Yarmoliuk.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)