After the break, Bournemouth seemed content to sit back and it was West Ham who enjoyed more of the ball, but without the goal threat of Carroll failed to test Boruc.
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West Ham made two changes to the team that comfortably beat Liverpool on 2nd January, with Pedro Obiang and Dimitri Payet coming in for Cheikhou Kouyate and Manuel Lanzini respectively.
Valencia then grabbed his second in the 84th minute to make it 3-1 and give West Ham breathing space as they saw out the game and took all three points.
The Cherries appeared on course for victory after Republic of Ireland global Harry Arter opened the scoring with 17 minutes gone.
West Ham next visit struggling Newcastle United on Saturday.
It was Bournemouth’s turn to lose a player early in the second half, with an injury to Matt Ritchie enabling loan signing Juan Iturbe to come on for his debut.
Just after the half hour mark Afobe had another great chance to get his first goal when he got on the end of Junior Stanislas’ superb pass, but he left the ball behind as he looked to round Adrian.
I am full of admiration for Slaven Bilic and the job he has done at West Ham this season.
Andy Carroll will be looking to score for his third match in a row and represents the most likely source of goals for the away side.
Bournemouth is now sixteenth in the Premier League with 21 points having won 5 games, drawn 6 and lost 9.
– Eddie Howe’s side scored for the first time in their last four top-flight games, thus ending their longest PL drought of the campaign (3 games).
But while Bournemouth wait for their new signings to bed in, the Hammers are already reaping the rewards of their new hero, Payet, and when Smith fouled Antonio, the scene was set for the winger to fire home his sixth goal of the season, his sweeping right-foot free-kick finding the top corner of Boruc’s goal.
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“So at half-time, of course we were not happy with the result, but we said we had to match them in the basic things, second balls and all that, closing down and then start to play football and be more confident when we are going forward”.
