Fulham 0-2 West Ham: Hammers claim fourth win in a row

West Ham claimed a fourth Premier League win in a row with a 2-0 victory over rock-bottom Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Fulham missed a host of early chances before Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio exposed their defensive frailties in the space of 12 minutes to put the Hammers two up at the break.

West Ham's first-half double took Fulham's goals conceded tally to 42 for the season, as their wait for a first clean sheet of the campaign continued.

The defeat leaves Fulham three points from safety at the bottom on the Premier League, while West Ham climb to ninth after their best run in the Premier League since February 2014.

Recalled into the Fulham starting line-up after his goal at Old Trafford, Aboubakar Kamara nearly vindicated his selection with the opening goal on nine minutes, but striker spurned a glorious chance as Lukasz Fabianski saved his near-post shot.

And Fulham were made to pay for that miss as Felipe Anderson spun away from Denis Odoi and rolled the ball back to the edge of the area where Snodgrass curled a fine effort into the top corner.

Aleksandar Mitrovic failed to haul Fulham level when he headed wide from a Joe Bryan cross on 26 minutes, but the chances kept on falling Fulham's way.

A brilliant Odoi cross landed perfectly for Kamara a minute later but Fabianski got down low to his left to keep the header out. Frustrated with his earlier misses, Kamara then stung the palms of the West Ham 'keeper with a 25-yard drive.

But after a flurry of missed Fulham chances, West Ham gave then hosts a lesson in finishing as Javier Hernandez flicked a cross from the left onto Antonio at the back post, and the forward took a touch to control before slotting a second through Sergio Rico's legs.

From there on, Fulham showed little sign of getting back into the game. A driven cross from Cyrus Christie was nearly turned into his own net by Issa Diop, but that was a brief moment of panic in an otherwise assured defensive display from West Ham.

Opta stats

• West Ham have won four consecutive Premier League games for the first time since February 2014.
• Fulham haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their last 21 Premier League games, conceding at least twice in 18 of those games (53 goals in total).
• West Ham have won more Premier League London derbies this season (2) than they did in the whole of 2017-18 (1). This is the first time they've won back-to-back league London derbies since a run of three in October 2015.
• West Ham's Robert Snodgrass has been directly involved in five goals in his last four Premier League games (2 goals, 3 assists), after previously going 16 games without a goal or assist in the competition.
• Following his assist today, Felipe Anderson has been involved in more Premier League goals this season than any other West Ham player (8 - 6 goals, 2 assists).
• Javier Hernandez's assist for West Ham's second goal was the Mexican's first assist in the Premier League since April 2014, when he set up Juan Mata for Man Utd vs Newcastle.

The managers

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Claudio Ranieri: "We shot at goal 16 times - we have to be more and more effective. They create two counter-attacks and they scored two goals. It's unbelievable. I can say nothing today. They tried their best. When you play a team with experience and quality you try to do your best and we tried. My players were fighting to the end."

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Manuel Pellegrini: "We are very happy, to win four in a row is not easy in the Premier League. We didn't create too many chances but we scored the chances and we defended very well, especially in the second half."

Man of the Match - Fabian Balbuena

The Paraguayan did not put a foot wrong at Craven Cottage, despite the testing conditions in sodden south-west London. Many eyebrows were raised when West Ham signed Balbuena last summer, but with each passing game, it's looking like a shrewd piece of business from the Hammers.

What's next?

Fulham travel to Newcastle and West Ham host Watford in the Premier League on Saturday at 3pm.

Play Super 6

Predict 6 correct scores for your chance to win £250K.