West Ham were forced to reduce the stadium’s 60,000 capacity to 57,000 for their fixture as too many home fans had stood during a Europa League qualifier against NK Domzale.
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In the day’s other game, Cristhian Stuani netted a stunning brace as Middlesbrough beat local rivals Sunderland 2-1 in the Tees-Wear derby to register a first victory since securing promotion from the Championship.
Having endured a tortuous night while playing out of position in last Monday’s defeat to Chelsea, Antonio was back in his favourite position against Bournemouth and he showed Slaven Bilic why he should stay there with a timely reminder of his goalscoring instincts.
“Andre Ayew suffered a rare but very serious thigh injury at Chelsea, which will take time to recover from”, he told the club’s official website.
Eight minutes later Antonio popped up with the ground’s first Premier League goal, a far-post header from Gokhan Tore’s left-wing cross.
They rose even higher when -Antonio scored – but there was also a great deal of relief by then – and although he was awarded the sponsors’ man-of-the-match the prize, it should have gone to West Ham goalkeeper Adrian, who pulled off two superb saves to deny, both times, the Bournemouth striker Joshua King.
Yet Bournemouth still could have spoiled the party but for Adrian’s save from King and Winston Reid’s courageous block to deny Simon Francis on the follow-up.
“Are we going to try to get one?”
“It was a tight game, I thought there was nothing in it, it was a game of few chances”, Howe added.
Patrick van Aanholt pulled a goal back in the 71st for Sunderland.
Speaking after the match, Hammers boss, Slaven Bilic, said: “We didn’t expect to play great football and play like Brazil and pass, pass, pass because, with the greatest respect, we were missing four of our most-creative players”.
“I told the players they would start at 150 percent, but with players of the quality of Cristhian Stuani we were able to score a first goal like that, which opened up the game”.
‘It’s going to be a massive lift for us. “We need to be disciplined and keep 11 players on the pitch”.
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“We are working really hard”. They want to get better this season, a big ask after the last campaign, and anything short of a win here would have been discouraging.
