Hammers slide to defeat ‘double’ on south coast

Bournemouth 2 Irons 0

The skipper did well in midfield despite a disappointing result

West Ham were never truly on the pace this afternoon with Marko Arnautovic’s absence clearly costing them as they failed to score against Bournemouth for the first time.

And this defeat means the Cherries completed a double over the Irons with Callum Wilson scoring his sixth goal against us for the first, with King adding the second in injury time.

Despite the Hammers having plenty of possession during a well fought second half we didn’t create enough genuine chances and Bournemouth were always intensely dangerous on the counter.

But for Fabianski getting a touch Wilson would have had  a second goal as the ball was instead diverted by our keeper onto the post.

But our real problem was the inability of Andy Carroll to do an Arnautovic by turning inside and getting onto the last pass…not his fault because it’s simply not his game. He’s a target man.

It meant however, that the tam’s attacking modus operandi was disturbed by the Austrian’s absence and maybe the hustle and bustle of Antonio would have been a better option with Hernandez – who looked lively when he arrived as a second half sub – a better bet.

Carroll was guilty of a terrible second half miss when from two yards out he managed to balloon the ball way over the bar whilst, beyond that, Fabianski had to make a couple of superb saves.

The Cherries were the most dangerous team on the break and one was left with the overall impression that if Arnautovic’s day is done we really do need to find a new way of playing up front.

At the back Zaba was magnificent along with Diop whilst in midfield Mark Noble provided some real srive, passing ability and strong tackling.

At the end of it all the defeat – deeply disappointing though it was – did us little damage in terms of league position with the team slipping into tenth place from ninth.