Michael Antonio, formerly on loan at Cheltenham Town, has scored West Ham United’s first goal at their new London Stadium home.
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The breakthrough in part stemmed from the space created by the dismissal of Bournemouth’s influential midfielder Harry Arter seven minutes earlier for a second bookable offence after bringing down Cheikhou Kouyate.
After 112 years playing at the Boleyn Ground the Hammers moved into the London Stadium – known to everyone in the whole world as the Olympic Stadium – this summer.
– West Ham v Astra Giurgiu in the second leg of the Europa League first play-off round should be a belter on Thursday.
Frustrated by Diego Costa’s late victor for Chelsea in their Premier League opener at Stamford Bridge on Monday, West Ham were also dealing with a host of injuries to key players including Andre Ayew, Payet and Carroll.
“It’s a great feeling, ” Noble said. “But for one bit of a lack of discipline, I think we would have won it”.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic admitted last week the Ghana worldwide could be out for up to four months if surgery was required.
West Ham’s new home is the 55th ground to host Premier League action and the third largest with a capacity that can rise to 60,000 later this season. As long as we are winning and they are going home happy they are going to pack this stadium.
“You want your players to be as comfortable as possible”, he said. Stoke had the better of the second half and were unlucky not to equalise before the Spaniard sealed the three points. Are we going to be very active?
It seems that the squad is down to the bare bones at the moment, but it just makes this win all the more important with the trip to Manchester City coming up on Sunday.
West Ham will offer support to the Nigerian club to help establish grass roots programmes in the country and develop the standard of soccer in the region.
“You ain’t just going to roll over teams here. We have a good team and we’re expecting to play a good game”.
Howe’s side were reduced to 10 men late on when Harry Arter picked up a second yellow card, and Slaven Bilic’s men duly ensured their numerical advantage was not wasted as Antonio knocked in the victor.
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Bournemouth made one change from last weekend as Ryan Fraser replaced Lewis Cook.
