West Ham United 3-4 Bournemouth

Barclays Premier League 
West Ham United 3-4 Bournemouth 

West Ham United slipped to a second successive home defeat in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday, as a Callum Wilson hat-trick earned the Cherries their first ever top-flight points.     

In a topsy-turvy affair, the Cherries could well have been out of sight by the interval. Wilson was twice the beneficiary of Aaron Cresswell errors, with Eddie Howe's men two up inside half an hour.

But it was West Ham with all the momentum after the interval. Having been felled by Joshua King, Mark Noble halved the Hammers' arrears from the spot, before Cheikhou Kouyate completed the comeback on the rebound.

The pendulum, however, would swing once more. Marc Pugh restored the Cherries' advantage with a tidy right-foot finish and then Carl Jenkinson saw red for hauling down Max Gradel when in on goal.

Wilson tucked home the spot-kick to earn the match ball and though Modibo Maiga strode through to bring West Ham back within one, it was to merely prove a consolation.              
      
Slaven Bilic had earlier made three changes to the side beaten at home by Leicester City last time out, with Mauro Zarate and Reece Oxford both missing through injury, while Adrian, of course, started the first of his three-game ban. 

In their place came skipper Kevin Nolan, Pedro Obiang and, making his Barclays Premier League bow for the Hammers, Darren Randolph. 

The Hammers started brightly enough. Kouyate’s near-post cross had Nolan interested, but Artur Boruc snaffled it. And Winston Reid had the ball in the Cherries net inside seven minutes. The New Zealander’s header from a Dimitri Payet corner ricocheted past Boruc, only for referee Jonathan Moss to penalise the No2 for a rather blatant push on Tommy Elphick.     

But just as they were against Leicester, West Ham were caught cold. After eleven minutes, an indecisive Aaron Cresswell was robbed on the by-line by Simon Francis, whose cross was met flush on the volley by Wilson and positively flew into the roof of the net. 

In response, Payet tried to play in Kouyate down the middle. His ball was a delicate one inside the full-back, but Boruc fell on it and gathered at the second attempt.  

Cresswell’s afternoon was to get worse still on 28 minutes. The Hammers retrieved possession on the edge of the box but the left-back, in trying to roll it back to Randolph, only succeeded in gifting Wilson with another gilt-edged chance. He made no mistake, lashing it past the exposed West Ham stopper once more.     

The Cherries were rampant. Wilson skipped in behind for the umpteenth time and, but for the intervention of Randolph, Matt Ritchie would have tapped in at the far stick. 

Then Francis waltzed down the right and this time Joshua King volleyed over the top from eight yards. It could and should have been three. 

Bilic’s response was to introduce James Tomkins for Angelo Ogbonna and switch Reid to the left side of the hosts’ central defensive pairing.   

But still the chances came and good chances at that.  Tormentor-in-chief Wilson squared for Gradel, who, with all the time and space in the world, saw his effort repelled by an excellent Randolph stop.    

Matt Jarvis replaced Nolan at the interval, as the Hammers set about clawing their way back into the contest. They weren't made to wait long, less than three minutes to be precise.  

A less-than-convincing Boruc punch eventually fell to Noble, who, with Bournemouth players all around him, was tripped by an injudicious King challenge.

Moss had no hesitation whatever in pointing to the spot and Noble made no mistake, slotting clinically into the left-hand corner.   

Five minutes later it was all square. Diafra Sakho spun and fired goalward, and Boruc's strong right hand could only parry it back into the path of Kouyate, who slammed into the roof of the net. Some response, that.     

But Bournemouth were not done yet, far from it. When Gradel squared for substitute Marc Pugh on the edge of the box, Randolph had to be at his very best to fling out a right arm and repel the stinging drive. 

It was a warning that was not heeded. Moments later, Gradel played in Pugh down the West Ham right and once Pugh had cut inside the sliding challenge of Jenkinson, the No7 curled sweetly beyond Randolph.   

And the game was effectively over as a contest with ten to play. Jenkinson should have cleared his lines but Gradel got the better of him and the full-back, in a last-ditch effort to make amends, upended the Ivorian in the box. 

Jenkinson was given his marching orders and Wilson made it four from 12 yards, though Randolph, down low to his left, was actually very close to keeping it out. 

At the other end, Maiga strode through the Bournemouth backline to make for a grandstand finish. And with the last kick of the game, a Payet corner threatened to beat Boruc at his near post, but the Cherries were somehow able to hack it behind to earn their first points of the campaign. 

West Ham United: Randolph, Jenkinson, Reid, Ogbonna (Tomkins 35), Cresswell, Obiang, Noble, Kouyate, Nolan (Jarvis 46), Payet, Sakho (Maiga 73)
Subs: Spiegel, Collins, Lanzini, Cullen 

Goals: Noble 48, Kouyate 53, Maiga 82

Sent off: Jenkinson 

Bournemouth: Boruc, Francis, Cook, Elphick (c), Surman, Gradel (Gosling 85), Daniels, Wilson, King (Pugh 51), Ritchie (Smith 90), O'Kane  

Subs: Federici, Mings, Smith, Kermorgant, Distin

Goals: Wilson 11, 28, 80, Pugh 66  

Booked: Boruc   

Referee: Jonathan Moss