Change the brochures, scrap the strapline. Bournemouth has long been established as a relaxing seaside holiday destination but for Premier League teams it is becoming an increasingly uncomfortable, turbulent trip. Just ask Julen Lopetegui, whose West Ham side had to be chuffed at leaving with a point despite taking the lead via a contentious late penalty, awarded for handball and converted by Lucas Paquetá.
West Ham faced a barrage of shots, 29 in total, nine on target, but Bournemouth simply would not give in. It would have been a travesty had the hosts exited the pitch empty-handed and in the end an unstoppable free-kick from 25 yards by the substitute Enes Unal, two minutes after falling behind, earned Andoni Iraola’s side a point. It was the least they deserved.
There is nothing serene about trying to stymie one of the most voracious sides in the division, especially here, where in recent months Bournemouth have overcome Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham. And the reality is they should have beaten West Ham, too.
Both teams hit the woodwork in a lively first half, Jarrod Bowen with a clever effort after Mohammed Kudus cut loose on halfway and, moments earlier, Antoine Semenyo saw an awkward shot shave a post. Carlos Soler and Tomas Soucek also had chances but the second half was largely one-way traffic, with Lukasz Fabianski making several important saves to keep the score level before the penalty, arguably the best of which kept out the substitute Philip Billing’s effort. It said everything that Fabianski was West Ham’s best player.
For Iraola, the obvious sore point was the penalty given following a VAR review. Aaron Wan-Bissaka clipped a cross towards Niclas Füllkrug, the striker powering a header, from a rare second-half opening for the visitors, at Kepa Arrizabalaga. Then the referee, Chris Kavanagh, indicated the VAR Michael Salisbury had encouraged him to visit the pitchside monitor. Wan-Bissaka’s cross had skimmed the Bournemouth substitute Tyler Adams’s left hand en route to Füllkrug, but the tiny deviation was only clear after numerous replays, from various angles.
At the time no West Ham player appeared to claim for a penalty. Iraola was frustrated the call did not marry with the message from the PGMOL, the referees’ body, at the annual meeting at the beginning of the season. “They said players don’t need to defend with hands behind their back in an unnatural position,” the Bournemouth head coach said.
“It didn’t affect the direction of the cross. They said: ‘If it’s a natural action, it’s not going to cost you.’ Bam, penalty. It’s obviously natural because if you go running to block a cross, you finish with one hand down, one up, it’s always like this. They explicitly told us defenders should not defend with hands behind back. What do I tell the defenders?”
No wonder Lopetegui wore the look of a man worried he had left the oven on. Bournemouth were relentless. They played with their usual endearing intensity and zip, and West Ham had to withstand waves of pressure, surviving a few scares along the way.
Dango Ouattara saw an effort, engineered from a short-corner routine, deflect wide two minutes into the restart and then Fabianski gathered a Semenyo daisy cutter. Ryan Christie had no such problem with conviction, his stinging left-foot shot from Evanilson’s layoff triggering a right-hand save from Fabianski. The bad news for West Ham was that there were still 40-plus minutes to play.
They needed to stem the flow but Maximilian Kilman, who impressed at centre-back, made a vital interception to shuffle across and block Semenyo’s shot, after Bournemouth bombed upfield, via Evanilson’s backheel. Illia Zabarnyi headed wide. West Ham’s creative juices, meanwhile, had run dry.
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When West Ham did get a glimpse of the Bournemouth goal in the second half, Zabarnyi was quickly on the scene to extinguish the danger. After Füllkrug clipped a pass through for Kudus, Zabarnyi flung his body to the floor to make a timely intervention.
Fabianski made a fine stop at his front post to push Evanilson’s header from Christie’s corner to safety late on and by now West Ham’s focus was solely on keeping the ball out, not attacking at the other end.
Lopetegui’s switch to a back five, handing Ollie Scarles his Premier League debut and only second his senior appearance, was indicative of the plan to ride out the storm. It seemed a dangerous game to play against a team with a habit of scoring late.
Strangely, it almost paid off but Bournemouth have now registered a league-high 10 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches, including five in stoppage time. “Bournemouth are one of the most demanding teams, especially at home,” Lopetegui said. “It was a pity for us because we were very close to three points.”
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