Whatever happens now in the career of Michail Antonio, who has journeyed from non-League to -Premier League in one of those -uplifting sporting stories, his name will be writ large in the history of West Ham United.
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West Ham secured a hard-fought victory over Bournemouth yesterday at the first time of asking at their new London Stadium. It was not. In mitigation for West Ham, they are adjusting to their new home, midweek travel fatigue and, even more so, -injuries.
“With Andre Ayew, it’s a long-term injury”.
Hammers defender, Sam Byram, hacked off the line from Steve Cook, while Adam Smith tested Adrian from distance as Bournemouth finally emerged from their defensive shell and offered the first viable attempts of the second period.
Valencia finally forced a save out of Cherries keeper Artur Boruc at his near post with a fierce angled drive before the interval.
Bournemouth came out strongly after the break, Jordan Ibe squandering a gilt-edged opportunity before Adrian pulled off a magnificent stop to deny Josh King, with Tore hammering a strike into the side-netting at the other end.
Though now sidelined with a hamstring injury Feghouli is convinced he made the right call in moving to West Ham, who he has watched from afar for some time. Is it a proper home?
“Arsenal were struggling at the Emirates and then it’s like a snowball, so now hopefully we have stopped it and we have got three points, well deserved, clean sheet and great team spirit and great team effort”.
The Hammers’ cause was not helped by the absence of club talisman Dimitri Payet and striker Andy Carroll, who has been ruled out for almost two months.
But Burke, who played at left-back for the Hammers in last week’s Europa League play-off round first leg against Astra Giurgiu, has not ruled out another loan spell – this time in the Championship. Unfortunately the mistake for us was going down to ten men. Chelsea on Monday, we didn’t get back from Romania until 5am on Friday morning.
Arter’s first yellow was for dissent – as officials crack down on players arguing decisions – and Howe was not best pleased with his player.
“It was a tight game with few chances”, Bournemouth manager Howe told Sky Sports.
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“We’ve been told about dissent”. “I felt we were the stronger side in the second half, so it’s hard to take”.
