Another Draw For Hammers Against Bournemouth

Although West Ham United beat AFC Bournemouth in Stratford at the end of August, they were unable to emulate that result on Saturday afternoon, as the game ended 2-2.

Graham Potter made four changes from Tuesday night’s encounter against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, as Mohammed Kudus and Jean-Clair Todibo returned to the starting line-up, following injury and illness respectively. Tomáš Souček and Edson Álvarez also came in with Konstantinos Mavropanos, Luis Guilherme, Evan Ferguson and Aaron Cresswell all making way.

With the Cherries surprisingly struggling to pick up results of late and the Hammers not being able to put a consistent run of form together, it was perhaps expected that a breakthrough would take a while to find.

Andoni Iraola’s side were the better of the two throughout the first-half and they could have made it a disastrous start for the hosts but thankfully, Evanilson couldn’t beat home goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, despite meeting Dango Ouattara’s cross.

Minutes later, Aaron Wan-Bissaka nearly put through his own net but he was thankful to the French stopper for keeping the effort out, while up the other end, Antoine Semenyo almost did likewise but visiting goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga saved his blushes and held onto the ball.

The Chelsea loanee also saw an attempt from Oliver Scarles flash across goal but it didn’t worry him.

Areola was in the thick of the action again when he prevented Souček from scoring an own goal but he was at fault when he only palmed Semenyo’s low near post effort into the path of Evanilson and the striker got to the ball ahead of Max Kilman to put the Cherries in front.

The Irons were relieved not to fall further behind just two minutes before the break, as Illya Zabarnyi headed Lewis Cook’s corner against the crossbar.

The home support had seen their team start April with a defeat and when referee Tim Robinson blew the half-time whistle, the majority inside the stadium were clearly expecting better than what they had seen so far.

Just as he did against Vítor Pereira’s men last time out, the West Ham Head-Coach made a change during the break, as he replaced Scarles with Emerson Palmieri. He also changed formation by moving Lucas Paquetá up front.

A further eleven minutes had passed and the change that Potter had made was not making a significant impact. Mindful of that fact, he made two more, bringing on both Niclas Füllkrug and Carlos Soler for Souček and Álvarez.

As he often does, the German striker was making his presence felt and just after the hour mark, he scored his first goal at home but a third in total for the club. Jarrod Bowen and Paquetá combined to earn their side a corner, James Ward-Prowse sent in one of his trademark dangerous deliveries and he rose highest to beat Arrizabalaga.

With so much time remaining, it gave the large home support hope of turning the game on its head. Well, that is exactly what happened!!! On sixty eight minutes, Kudus evaded the attentions of Cherries’ substitute James Hill and crossed into the box for Bowen to plant a header past Arrizabalaga.

At this point, Potter was heading for a fourth win since arriving in East London at the start of January.

There has been late drama in both of the previous fixtures between these two sides already this season and it was no different here. Robinson gave the visitors a free-kick, which was taken quickly and Dean Huijsen beat Kilman to the ball and it fell kindly for Evanilson to slot beyond the onrushing Areola.

Even with the scores level for a second time in the match, there were still minutes remaining for a winner to be found. Potter introduced more new faces, as Guilherme and Mavropanos entered the fray. To be brutally honest, Guilherme was ineffectual five days ago but being fair to him on this occasion, he was much better and went extremely close to cementing all three points for his team but the ball hit the bar.

The visitors also had a chance to go back in front but they couldn’t take it which meant that once again, the points were shared.

Back in February, Potter steered his side to an unlikely away win at Arsenal. The travelling Claret and Blue Army will be hoping that he can perform more miracles next Sunday when the Irons go to Anfield, where they will attempt to inflict a rare defeat on Premier League leaders Liverpool.