The odds perhaps favoured Michail Antonio heading a late victor in the week he was derided by the shirt sponsor of West Ham United.
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West Ham United safely negotiated a nervous first Premier League game at their new ground to record their opening win of the season 1-0 against Bournemouth thanks to a late header from Michail Antonio at the London Stadium on Sunday.
The Hammers left it late to secure all three points in a dour match at the Olympic Stadium.
Another picture snapped from the Bournemouth game shows an even stranger scene inside the stadium.
There were many positives for West Ham to take from this home victory at the first time of asking at their new stadium.
Bilic made the revelation when addressing concerns on the club’s need for further signings following a series of injury setbacks including Ayew, striker Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini, Dimitri Payet, Sofiane Feghouli and Diafra Sakho.
“I felt we were the better team and much-improved second half”.
“I was delighted to score on my debut, and hope that there will be many more opportunities to do well”.
Boss Slaven Bilic admitted last week the Ghana worldwide might not play again until January at the earliest if he needed surgery but now the club’s head of medical and sports science, Stijn Vandenbroucke, has ruled out an operation.
The worst situation is when you plan and you have a player and put a big circle around him, saying, “He’s the one”. “We didn’t expect to play like Brazil”.
To match them takes effort.
The last act of the game, as 10-man Bournemouth desperately pushed for an equaliser, came from West Ham substitute Jonathan Calleri, who was sent running through on goal but managed to drag his shot wastefully wide.
Ireland global Arter received a first-half booking for dissent, and was shown a second yellow in the 77th minute for cynically pulling down Cheikhou Kouyate. “It’s the first one that burns”, Howe said.
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“Everybody knows what he means for us, and, of course, we would have loved for him to play, but it was impossible”.
