Forest, Leeds beware as West Ham look alive with record-breaker Bowen, £20m Real Madrid target | OneFootball

As West Ham and Nuno Espirito Santo appeared dead and buried with relegation looking certain, a timely trip to Dr Tottenham breathed fresh life into their hopes of Premier League survival.

The late winner from an unexpected source, Callum Wilson, ended their 10-game winless Premier League run dating back to November, though this would have proved pointless had Nuno‘s side not followed this up against Sunderland.

It was a kindness from the footballing gods to gift West Ham a game against this Spurs side when they desperately needed a spark last Saturday, and they had a second gift in a different match on the same day: Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka’s ankle injury.

Sunderland are far from a one-man team, but Xhaka is clearly their most important player, and the visit to the London Stadium marked the first time they have been without the former Arsenal man for a Premier League match in 2025/26.

Speaking pre-match, Black Cats boss Regis Le Bris was optimistic that the “good level of confidence” in his squad would help his side manage without Xhaka, but it was West Ham who were surprisingly the ones full of confidence for a large portion of Saturday’s early kick-off.

Despite winning last week, there were all the ingredients for this match to turn ugly quickly for West Ham and Nuno, with the game played to the backdrop of fan protests and an incredibly flat atmosphere.

So, an early goal either way would always be decisive and West Ham did not look back after breaking the deadlock inside the opening 15 minutes.

Sunderland’s game plan was to sit in and let the pressure from the stands build while looking to strike on the counter-attack or via a set-piece, but this backfired as Jarrod Bowen and Crysensio Summerville combined for a brilliant opening goal.

Bowen had the beating of Reinildo, who was fortunate not to be sent off before being hooked at half-time, and the West Ham captain provided the assist for Summerville, who cleverly found space to head home at the back post.

In doing so, Bowen became West Ham’s outright leader for Premier League goal involvements with 102 (62 goals and 40 assists), and he got his 103rd soon after with a far superior penalty than the one taken by Brahim Diaz in the African Cup of Nations final.

20-year-old Ollie Scarles deserved an assist for his positive endeavour to win West Ham’s spot-kick from a clumsy Trai Hume challenge, with this moment perfectly summing up the contrasting performances from either side.

Without Xhaka, Sunderland sorely lacked composure and were really poor on the ball with wasteful passes and careless losses of possession, and they were no match for an inspired West Ham side.

You can count on one hand the number of times you can say that about a West Ham performance over the past year, with the giddiness of home supporters underlined by olé shouts at a piece of skill by Taty Castellanos, while there were sarcastic jeers at the many occasions of Sunderland making a mess of a move.

And they were in dreamland when Mateus Fernandes added to an excellent solo performance with a quite ridiculous strike from 30 yards to make it 3-0 before the interval. He did his chances of earning a £20m transfer no harm with Real Madrid apparently ‘keeping an eye’ on him.

It is a testament to just how good West Ham had performed (and how bad Sunderland were) that the 3-0 scoreline was fully justified.

The hosts retained control in an utterly dominant display as Sunderland looked hopeless, though there was a trauma response from the home contingent when Brian Brobbey pulled one back with 25 minutes remaining.

Brobbey’s goal came from nowhere and Sunderland failed to capitalise on the tension in the stadium, with West Ham looking the most likely to score the game’s fifth goal.

Fernandes came within inches of scoring his second stunner of the game as he struck the crossbar. Sunderland’s players, meanwhile, were more likely to have a full-blown fight than score a second or third, with handbags thrown on the pitch and even in the stands as Xhaka got himself involved by clashing with West Ham supporters.

So, all in all, it was a rare game to forget for Sunderland in what is proving to be a great season for the promoted side.

Sunderland are already sure of their safety, and West Ham could still be in the Premier League with them next season.

It is not the time to get carried away, but this has been a huge week for the Hammers as their new signings have made a positive impact and they finally have some semblance of momentum that could at least keep them within touching distance of Nottingham Forest and Leeds United for the duration.

Now, Forest’s trip to face Brentford on Sunday suddenly feels huge.