At the London Stadium, West Ham overcame an early mistake by Kalvin Phillips to draw 1-1 with Bournemouth.
In the third minute, Phillips, making his debut following his loan move from Manchester City to the London Stadium, found Dominic Solanke with an attempted back pass after Ryan Christie placed pressure on him. Bournemouth took the lead thanks to a brilliant play from Solanke, who punished Phillips’ mistake.
Kalvin Phillips made the mistake that resulted in a goal with just his second touch of the ball while wearing a West Ham shirt, as he had made one error in 65 games during his whole Premier League career prior to tonight.
The goal surprised West Ham since Bournemouth had been the stronger team in the first half. However, shortly before the interval, Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola made an incredible one-handed save to deny Antoine Semenyo, preventing them from extending their lead.
It proved to be a costly miss as West Ham, despite their lacklustre performance, got back into the game in the 61st minute. VAR intervened after Lloyd Kelly had brought down Mohammed Kudus in the penalty area. Referee Tim Robinson didn’t initially give the spot kick but reversed his decision after being sent to the screen before James Ward-Prowse levelled the scores.
Phillips was replaced after 68 minutes by striker Danny Ings but West Ham failed to kick on after the equaliser as the game fizzled out somewhat, with both sides settling for a point. The Hammers stay sixth, while Bournemouth move up to 12th.
West Ham manager David Moyes said after the game:
“Quite happy with a point. We didn’t play well. We fought back, but overall we could have played much better. A couple of games recently we’ve not played as well as we’d have liked.
“We tried to fit the players in who we had. Hindsight is a great thing, it probably didn’t work as well. We tried it, and that’s how it came. Mo [Kudus] had his moments, but he got us something to win the penalty kick. It looked as if we needed a game – we’re better playing every three days it seems.”
Meanwhile Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said:
“This is a difficult stadium to come, and to get a point is nice. I think also that if anyone deserved to win today it was us. We had the most clear chances. We have to go with one point, it’s not what we wanted with how the game went, but we still have to give it value.
“You have to be really clinical in these kinds of games to win it. They will find momentum and put you under pressure. We had good moments but didn’t score the second and that’s the reason we didn’t win today.
“We weren’t so ruthless in the end. We’re doing good things but we need to punish this position.”
West Ham travel to Man United next on Sunday while Bournemouth host Nottingham Forest on Sunday as well.
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