SEA SIDE SHUFFLE
Bournemouth 0 West Ham 4
The misery of West Ham’s league form in 2022-23 has crystallised into the first fifteen minutes of the majority of PL matches played this season. So when Hammers find themselves 2-0 up away from home with just twelve minutes on the clock, this represents a delightful seasonal blip. The draw against Arsenal which has in all probability robbed them of the League Title for the first time since… well, it’s a long time ago. That’s not nothing. And Michail Antonio finding the back of the net in the fifth minute with a bullet near post header from an Aaron Cresswell corner. That’s something, too.
Twelve minutes in and Vladimir Coufal pounces on a defensive error down the right to hammer in a far post cross that Paquetá heads home with little resistance from anyone in the cherry defence. Lerma draws a punching save from Fabianski that might have modified the early glee, and Solanke is further frustrated by the outstretched legs of the Polish keeper a few minutes later.
Then, from another deep Cresswell corner, a melee ensues whose loose ball product is unceremoniously rammed home by Hammers’ captain Declan Rice, leathering the loose ball with every ounce of energy he can produce from his swinging right leg.
The half-time supremacy tickles memories from last season about 3-0 leads, but twenty minutes from time this one is rendered safer than a Boris Johnson backhander, when Pablo Fornals returns to the scoresheet with a breathtakingly athletic scorpion overhead from Bowen’s part-blocked cross.
This is a doubly impressive victory for West Ham after Bournemouth’s 3-2 win away at Spurs last weekend. Nevertheless both Solanke and Moore have late chances to restore some sense of sanity to the score line, but in the end it proves another great day at the seaside for David Moyes’ improving Hammers’ side.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 23 Thilo Kehrer, 41 Declan Rice (captain), 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 12 Flynn Downes, 14 Maxwell Cornet, 8 Pablo Fornals
Goalscorers: 9 Michail Antonio, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 41 Declan Rice, 8 Pablo Fornals
