West Ham’s first Premier League match in their new stadium ended in a 1-0 win, as Michail Antonio headed home the victor past Artur Boruc in the 85th minute.
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The hosts struggled to produce a performance worthy of a venue that hosted the 2012 Olympic Games and had to wait until the 85th minute for a breakthrough when Antonio rose at the far post to head home a beautifully flighted cross from Gokhan Tore.
For all West Ham’s effort, they didn’t look like breaking through until Bournemouth midfielder Harry Arter was sent off for a second booking in the 77th minute after chopping down Cheikhou Kouyate.
The results: La Liga: Sporting Gijon 2 (Duje Cop 50, Victor 53) bt Athletic Bilbao 1 (Borja Viguera 86); Granada 1 (Ponce 65) drew with Villarreal 1 (Castillejo 62); Sevilla 6 (Sarabia 15, Vietto 22, 45, Vazquez 54, Yedder 66, Kiyotake 74) bt Espanyol 4 (Piatti 8, Perez 26, Sanchez 44, Moreno 80).
The odds perhaps favoured Michail Antonio heading a late victor in the week he was derided by the shirt sponsor of West Ham United.
Those chances seemed to spark West Ham, which lost just one of its last 17 Premier League matches at Upton Park, back into life, and Tore again went close when his venomous volley nestled into the side netting.
West Ham collected its first points of the new league season.
West Ham were forced to reduce the capacity of the stadium from 60,000 to 57,000 for the match against Bournemouth.
Bournemouth should have taken the lead shortly after the interval as Ibe raced in behind West Ham’s defence, but, after electing to try and pick out Calum Wilson rather than shoot, its record signing could not apply the finishing touch.
West Ham defender Reece Burke has signed a new four-year contract at the London Stadium which will tie him to the Premier League club until 2020.
“So if you’re talking about creativity then we are okay, because nobody has five players like that”.
“There’s not a team in Europe linked with more players than West Ham”.
“It was not a good game but the lads were brilliant”, said Bilic.
He told Sky Sports: “The week we’ve had after Monday night, away to Chelsea and losing late on, and then going all the way to Romania and getting back in the early hours of Friday, to come and win at home is a great feeling”.
“You have to forget about it, it’s in the past and you have to move on and I did and managed to get a victor”.
However, Bilic has confirmed that he will likely use Antonio at right-back on more occasions this season, stressing that what is best for the team comes before any individual player’s preferences.
The full-back concluded: “It is a great stadium, the pitch, the atmosphere, it really is special and we are really excited to be playing in this stadium”.
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“It’s hugely disappointing. There was nothing in game and ultimately the red card cost us the game”, said Howe.
