Of all the feet West Ham would have wanted it to fall to, it was Jarrod Bowen’s. One last chance, deep into stoppage time, to snatch a huge win in their bid for survival and heap pressure on to Nottingham Forest and Tottenham and their captain blazed it over.
New managers Vitor Pereira and Igor Tudor were allowed to breath a deep sigh of relief but even in this entertaining goalless draw against Bournemouth, West Ham showed plenty to tell their relegation rivals they are still more than up for the fight.
COMPETENCE AND CONFIDENCE
It’s been a while since anyone has been able to say this with any conviction but West Ham look a competent, functioning team again.
They were brilliant here against Manchester United, only denied a win by Benjamin Sesko’s last-minute stunner, and against the European-chasing Cherries they looked calm and confident.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side flew out the traps, winning a corner inside 13 seconds from which the excellent Axel Disasi saw a header cleared off the line. They attempted 20 shots, their most in a game since December 2024.
New striker Taty Castellanos brings a new dimension to their attack and nearly won it with a sensational overhead kick.
In the short months since his appointment Nuno Espirito Santo has made West Ham look like a competent force
Taty Castellanos has been a particularly potent addition to the Hammers’ attacking ranks
But what was most impressive was how Nuno has transformed this defence. Any time they lost the ball, they were immediately back into a solid shape. Gone are the nights of cavernous gaps all over the pitch and a feeling that any time the opposition got the ball near the West Ham goal, calamity would ensue.
For the first hour, they restricted Bournemouth to just two shots, both of them from miles away that never troubled Mads Hermansen in the Hammers goal. Chelsea loanee Disasi has been a fine addition. Even when Bournemouth piled on the pressure late on, a defence that has frequently crumbled showed some steel.
RAYAN’S NEAR-RECORD
When Bournemouth’s biggest chances did come, it was of little surprise that their teenage Brazilian sensation Rayan was at the heart of them.
The 19-year-old has been an unstoppable force of nature since making his debut and was looking to become the fourth teenager to score or assist in his first four Premier League games.
He so nearly did. First he broke away on the counter-attack, shrugged off two players before thundering a shot off the post. Later it needed a sensational sliding block from El Hadji Malick Diouf to deny Rayan from inside the box.
SUMMERVILLE IN SPOTLIGHT
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Netherlands assistant coach, watched on from the stands at the London Stadium, to keep a close eye on West Ham’s man-of-the-moment Crysencio Summerville.
The Hammers winger’s hot streak of six goals in seven games before tonight has thrust him into contention for a call-up to Ronald Koeman’s squad for next month.
Crysencio Summerville was monitored from the stands by Netherlands assistant coach Ruud van Nistelrooy
Van Nistelrooy will have been impressed with what he saw. Every time Summerville got on the ball, he caused Bournemouth problems. He had full-back Jimenez on toast all evening.
He so nearly added to his burgeoning goal tally inside the first five minutes, getting on the end of a stunning cross behind the backline by Taty Castellanos but couldn’t get enough on it to beat Djorde Petrovic. He dribbled past two defenders before firing over the bar. In the second half he saw a deflected effort loop just over.
He, too, had a chance to win it late on but couldn’t get the ball out of his feet when it mattered and was the man to slip in Bowen at the death.
