West Ham snatched a 1-0 victory against Bournemouth on Sunday thanks to a goal from Michail Antonio and a section of Hammers supporters leapt up from hard concrete to celebrate.
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On Saturday night, Premier League champions Leicester City and last season’s runners-up Arsenal remained without a win this season after a slow-burning 0-0 draw at the King Power Stadium.
‘It feels awesome to be the first Premier League goalscorer at London Stadium and it’s one of those things I can always tell my kids, ‘ he told West Ham TV.
The match will not live long in the memory but Hammers boss Slaven Bilic will not mind as his side collected their first points of the season. “It was a team effort today”. Dutchman Patrick van Aanholt pulled one back for the hosts but it was too late.
“It’s very pleasing. It wasn’t a great game but we didn’t expect to play like we’d like to play with the players we have out”, said Bilic, who revealed striker Andy Carroll had joined his injured list.
With Bournemouth offering little going forward, Besiktas loanee Tore continued to represent West Ham’s greatest threat, and he could well have been awarded a penalty had the officials spotted Charlie Daniels’ late challenge was fractionally inside the area.
“I’m not paid to say I like the new stadium if I don’t like it, but I thought the atmosphere was brilliant”, Bilic said.
It consigned Bournemouth to back-to-back defeats in their first two Premier League matches (and nearly a year to the day after they came to Upton Park and won 4-3 with a Callum Wilson hat-trick) and changed the dynamic for West Ham who are now up and running.
One swift counter-attack, started by Sam Byram and featuring neat one-touch passes from Mark Noble and Valencia, culminated in Tore feeding Antonio who scuffed his shot wide.
“We were really good in terms of team spirit and aggressiveness, I think we just deserve it”. It’s important to win because people would start to ask questions. Is this our proper home?
Bilic hopes Payet will return by next weekend, but he admitted to being frustrated that the injury-prone Carroll had been ruled out yet again.
“I will speak to the chairman tomorrow”.
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The defeat left Bournemouth at the bottom of the table without a point behind Crystal Palace, who lost at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, and Sunderland on goal difference.
