2023–24 West Ham United F.C. season

West Ham players enter the pitch at the Vitality Stadium for the first game of the season, against AFC Bournemouth.

West Ham started their Premier League season against AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on 12 August 2023. Jarrod Bowen scored the opening goal, a long-range strike into the top left corner from outside the box, in the 51st minute. Towards the end of the match, Dominic Solanke turned in a wayward effort from Antoine Semenyo to equalise for Bournemouth. The match finished in a 1–1 draw.[3][4]

West Ham then played their first London derby of the season against Chelsea at London Stadium on 20 August. Debutant James Ward-Prowse assisted Nayef Aguerd's opener in the 7th minute with a corner delivered into the box to put the Hammers ahead. Chelsea responded through Carney Chukwuemeka in the 28th minute to level the game. The Blues were then awarded a penalty by referee John Brooks after Tomáš Souček fouled Raheem Sterling in the box. Enzo Fernández took the penalty, which was saved by Alphonse Areola. In the second half, Ward-Prowse earned a second assist after sending the ball through to Michail Antonio, who shot it past Robert Sánchez and into the bottom-left corner to put the Hammers back ahead. In the 67th minute, Nayef Aguerd was sent off after being shown a second yellow card for a bad foul on Nicolas Jackson. Despite being down to ten men, West Ham held onto their lead and were awarded a penalty after Moisés Caicedo fouled Emerson in the box in added time. Lucas Paquetá scored the penalty to seal the victory for the Hammers in the 90+5th minute. The match finished 3–1 to West Ham in their first win of the season.[5][6]

West Ham then played Brighton & Hove Albion at the American Express Stadium on 26 August. Though Brighton dominated the early stages of the game, in the 19th minute Michail Antonio took advantage of a defensive error from Adam Webster and crossed the ball to James Ward-Prowse, who scored his first goal for West Ham and his 50th Premier League goal overall. In the second half, the Hammers scored two goals in five minutes to extend their lead, first through Jarrod Bowen in the 58th minute and then through Michail Antonio in the 63rd minute. Brighton pegged West Ham back late on through Pascal Groß, but the Hammers held on and the match finished 3–1 to West Ham in their first ever Premier League victory against Brighton.[7][8] The win placed West Ham above Tottenham Hotspur on goals scored at the top of the table.[9]

Luton Town and West Ham players line up at Kenilworth Road before the game.

On 1 September, West Ham played newly-promoted Luton Town at Kenilworth Road in the first ever Premier League match to be held at the stadium. The Hammers opened the scoring through Jarrod Bowen, whose header off a Lucas Paquetá delivery deflected into the net off of goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski in the 37th minute. The second West Ham goal came through captain Kurt Zouma, who headed in a corner delivery from James Ward-Prowse in the 85th minute. Mads Juel Andersen scored Luton's first ever Premier League home goal in added time but the match finished 2–1 to West Ham.[10][11] The win placed West Ham at the top of the table above Manchester City at the start of the matchweek.[12]

During the international break, ten West Ham players were called up to represent their national teams. Four players were called up for UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying: Vladimír Coufal and Tomáš Souček for the Czech Republic, Alphonse Areola for France and Konstantinos Mavropanos for Greece, another four players were called up for 2023 AFCON qualifiers: Saïd Benrahma for Algeria, Mohammed Kudus for Ghana, Nayef Aguerd for Morocco and Maxwel Cornet for Ivory Coast. Striker Michail Antonio was called up by Jamaica to participate in CONCACAF Nations League matches, whilst midfielder Edson Álvarez was called up by Mexico for international friendlies.[13]

On 16 September, West Ham played the defending League and European champions Manchester City at London Stadium. The Hammers struck first in the 36th minute as Vladimír Coufal's cross was headed in by James Ward-Prowse. City struck back almost immediately after half time through Jérémy Doku before Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland added to the scoreline in the 76th and 86th minutes respectively. The match finished 3–1 to City in West Ham's first loss of the season.[14][15] Manager David Moyes praised his team despite the loss and commented that "we’re talking about the champions of the major European competition and the champions of the Premier League and they’re really hard to beat, really hard".[16]

West Ham played their first group stage game of the 2023–24 Europa League on 21 September at home to Serbian team TSC Bačka Topola. A defensive error by Angelo Ogbonna in the 47th minute allowed Petar Stanić to rob him of possession before running on to score past Łukasz Fabiański. West Ham responded with two goals from Mohammed Kudus, his first for the club, in the 66th and 70th minute before Tomáš Souček added a third in the 82nd minute as the game finished 3-1.[17][18] Kudus' first goal in the 66th minute was originally ruled an own goal by Nemanja Petrović, but was retroactively awarded to Kudus by UEFA the next day.[19]

West Ham then returned to the Premier League to play Liverpool at Anfield on 24 September. Liverpool were awarded a penalty by referee Chris Kavanagh after Nayef Aguerd tripped up Mohamed Salah in the box. Salah took the penalty and sent Alphonse Areola the wrong way to put the Reds ahead in the 16th minute. The Hammers equalised a few minutes before half-time as Vladimír Coufal's cross was headed in by Jarrod Bowen. In the second half, goals from Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota put Liverpool further ahead. The match finished 3–1 to Liverpool in West Ham's second consecutive loss in the league.[20][21]

On 27 September, the Hammers played Lincoln City in the third round of the EFL Cup at the LNER Stadium. West Ham made 10 changes to the side that lost 3–1 to Liverpool with only Tomáš Souček retaining his place. West Ham won the match with a single goal from Souček in the 70th minute. The game was affected by poor weather conditions due to Storm Agnes.[22][23] In the fourth round draw later that day, West Ham were drawn at home to Arsenal for the next round.[24]

Returning to the London Stadium on 30 September, West Ham played Sheffield United in the Premier League in what was manager David Moyes’ 900th league match as a manager. West Ham won the game 2–0 with first-half goals from Jarrod Bowen and Tomáš Souček.[25][26]

On 5 October West Ham played their second Europa League game, against Freiburg at the Europa-Park Stadion. Lucas Paquetá scored in the 8th minute from a cross by Jarrod Bowen. In the 49th minute Freiburg equalised when Roland Sallai hit a close-range shot. Nayef Aguerd headed in a James Ward-Prowse corner past goalkeeper Noah Atubolu to make it 2–1 to West Ham, the final score. By winning they became the first English side to go 17 consecutive games in European competition without defeat.[27][28]

On 8 October West Ham played Newcastle United at the London Stadium. Tomáš Souček scored in the 8th minute but Alexander Isak scored two goals in five minutes in the second half to give Newcastle a 2-1 lead. Substitute Mohammed Kudus scored in the 89th minute as the game finished in a 2–2 draw.[29][30]

West Ham played Aston Villa in the Premier League at Villa Park on 22 October. Douglas Luiz put Villa ahead in the 30th minute, the only goal of the first half. He scored their second goal, a penalty in the 52nd minute after Ezri Konsa had been fouled. Jarrod Bowen pulled one back for West Ham in the 56th minute but Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey made it 4–1, the final score.[31][32] Bowen’s goal was the fifth successive away game in which he had scored, a feat only previously achieved in the Premier League by Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah.[33]

On 26 October, West Ham played Greek team, Olympiakos at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus in the Europa League. Kostas Fortounis scored for Olympiakos on 32 minutes and Rodinei’s shot deflected off of Angelo Ogbonna in the first minute of added-time to make the score 2-0 at half time. Although Lucas Paquetá scored in the 87th minute, West Ham lost 2-1.[34]

Date	Pos.	Player	Transferred from	Fee	Ref.
30 June 2023	LW	Sean Moore †	Cliftonville	Undisclosed	[35]
10 August 2023	DM	Edson Álvarez	Ajax	Undisclosed	[36]
14 August 2023	CM	James Ward-Prowse	Southampton	Undisclosed	[37]
22 August 2023	CB	Konstantinos Mavropanos	VfB Stuttgart	Undisclosed	[38]
27 August 2023	AM	Mohammed Kudus	Ajax	Undisclosed	[39]

† Signed for the Under-21s

On 15 June, the Premier League fixtures were released.[62][63]

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixtures

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixtures

The Hammers entered the competition in the third round, and were drawn away to Lincoln City. This was the first time in nearly 42 years that they had played in Lincoln since a 1–1 draw in November 1981 when Paul Goddard had scored in third round of the 1981-82 League Cup.[64][65] After defeating Lincoln 1–0, they were drawn at home to Arsenal in the fourth round.[24] This will be the fourth time the two clubs have met in the EFL Cup with West Ham winning in 1966 but losing in 1998 and 2017.[66]

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixtures

On 1 September, West Ham United were drawn into Group A of the Europa League, alongside Olympiacos, SC Freiburg and TSC.[67][68] The match schedule was announced the following day.[69][70]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		WHU	FRE	OLY	TSC
1	West Ham United	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6[lower-alpha 1]	Advance to round of 16		—	14 Dec	9 Nov	3–1
2	SC Freiburg	3	2	0	1	7	5	+2	6[lower-alpha 1]	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–2	—	30 Nov	9 Nov
3	Olympiacos	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4	Transfer to Europa Conference League		2–1	2–3	—	14 Dec
4	TSC	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1			30 Nov	1–3	2–2	—

West Ham United v TSC

21 September 2023 (2023-09-21) 1	West Ham United	3–1	TSC	London, England
20:00 BST	Kehrer  41' Kudus 66', 70' Souček 82'	Report	Kuveljić  32' Stanić 48'	Stadium: London Stadium Attendance: 41,374 Referee: Filip Glova (Slovakia)

SC Freiburg v West Ham United

5 October 2023 (2023-10-05) 2	SC Freiburg	1–2	West Ham United	Freiburg, Germany
18:45 CEST 17:45 BST	Höfler  25' Sallai 49'	Report	Paquetá 8' Álvarez  48' Aguerd 66'	Stadium: Europa-Park Stadion Attendance: 34,100 Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim (Sweden)

Olympiacos v West Ham United

26 October 2023 (2023-10-26) 3	Olympiacos	2–1	West Ham United	Piraeus, Greece
18:45 CEST 17:45 BST	Fortounis 33' Rodinei 45+1' Retsos  47' Camara  82' Masouras  90+3'	Report	Paquetá  64', 87' Antonio  76' Ogbonna  88'	Stadium: Karaiskakis Stadium Attendance: 30,623 Referee: Andris Treimanis (Latvia)

West Ham United v Olympiacos

9 November 2023 (2023-11-09) 4	West Ham United	v	Olympiacos	London, England
20:00 GMT		Report		Stadium: London Stadium

TSC v West Ham United

30 November 2023 (2023-11-30) 5	TSC	v	West Ham United	Bačka Topola, Serbia
18:45 CET 17:45 GMT		Report		Stadium: TSC Arena

West Ham United v SC Freiburg

14 December 2023 (2023-12-14) 6	West Ham United	v	SC Freiburg	London, England
20:00 GMT		Report		Stadium: London Stadium

The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal.

Rank	No.	Nat	Player	Premier League	FA Cup	EFL Cup	UEL	Total
1=	1		Łukasz Fabiański	0	0	1	0	1
	23		Alphonse Areola	1	0	0	0	1
Totals				1	0	1	0	2