Bournemouth (0) 1 v West Ham United (0) 1
By Kaz Mochlinski at the Vitality Stadium
It is not nearly enough yet for there to be talk about a revival, not even a mini one, but West Ham United managed to achieve something which this season has eluded Manchester City, Arsenal, and Spurs.
The Hammers avoided defeat at Bournemouth, and came extremely close to emulating Chelsea, who had won on their visit in September. But eventually having to settle for a hard-fought point is not unsatisfactory.
Whereas the Blues got the only goal of the game in the 86th minute, West Ham scored the opener even later, in the 87th minute. However, a last minute equaliser denied the visitors a victory this time.
In a dramatic finish, West Ham went ahead with a penalty, but Bournemouth drew level from a free-kick, with the Londoners’ lead lasting for less than three minutes. In fact, two minutes 47 seconds, to be precise.
A far longer length of time was taken up by the controversial VAR intervention that caused the Hammers’ spot-kick to be awarded, after Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s right-wing cross brushed Tyler Adams’ left arm.
The ball’s flight was not obviously diverted, and Niclas Füllkrug still got a powerful header in on goal, which was only kept out by a brilliant save from Кера Arrizabalaga. But the VAR team nevertheless stepped in.
Having spotted the potential handball, the VAR sent the referee, Chris Kavanagh, to review the incident on the pitchside monitor, after which the decision of giving a penalty was confirmed.
With a vital victory being apparently at stake, Lucas Paquetá showed no signs of nerves and stepped forward to coolly dispatch the penalty kick with an interrupted run-up, stopping to wait for the goalkeeper to dive the wrong way.
The goal was greeted with huge Hammers’ celebrations, including Paquetá pointedly going over to the sideline to hug his under-pressure head coach, Julen Lopetegui. For the second successive Monday evening, a positive outcome was possible.
After seven days earlier overcoming Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1, West Ham looked to be on course to continue their remarkable Monday night football record with a 10th win in 11 such league encounters.
However, much as the Hammers love Monday matches, Bournemouth adore scoring late goals, and the leveller was the ninth time the Cherries have struck after the 81st minute this season, more than any other team in the Premier League.
Enes Ünal was brought down by Dinos Mavropanos, and the substitute got up to take the free-kick himself, spectacularly curling it into the top corner of the net from 25 yards in a fitting finish to a fabulous game of football.
The Turkish striker has been showing his skill from set-pieces to his teammates on YouTube videos, and, when he at last got the opportunity to replicate it in a match, Ünal was able to execute it ideally.
The only surprise was that it took so long for either side to score. There was a total of 45 shots on goal attempted by the two teams, with 29 by Bournemouth - the most that they have ever managed in a Premier League contest.
After just 11 minutes, Evanilson and Justin Kluivert combined to release Antoine Semenyo, whose shot across the goal hit the post. Three minutes later, Mohammed Kudus played in Jarrod Bowen and the West Ham captain curled a left-foot effort against the crossbar.
Thereafter, the game stayed scoreless largely thanks to two terrific goalkeeping performances from Кера and Łukasz Fabiański, with the 39-year-old Hammer popularly earning the man-of-the match nomination for his repeated excellence.
Playing his eighth consecutive game since regaining the position of West Ham’s first-choice keeper, Fabiański justified Lopetegui’s selection with eight crucial saves, most of which were absolutely exceptional.
It would have needed to be something very special to beat the Pole on this occasion, and Ünal produced it right at the end, to maintain Bournemouth’s remarkable run of recovering from losing positions this season.
The South Coast side have now won nine points with comebacks from being behind in their 16 Premier League matches so far, bettered only by Manchester City’s 14 and Aston Villa’s 11.
If they had beaten West Ham by three goals then Bournemouth would have overtaken Manchester City into fifth place in the Premier League. A point against the Hammers has still taken the Cherries into the top six.
For West Ham, the draw moves them one point further away from the relegation zone, with a gap now of seven points over Ipswich Town. And for the moment, that has to count as progress in the right direction.
Bournemouth: (4-2-3-1) Arrizabalaga - Smith (Adams 68), Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez - Christie, Cook - Semenyo (Brooks 68), Kluivert (Billing 80), Ouattara - Evanilson (Enes Ünal 80)
West Ham United: (4-2-3-1) Fabiański - Coufal, Mavropanos, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka (Casey 95) - Álvarez (Scarles 75), Soler (Füllkrug 56) - Paquetá, Souček, Kudus (Summerville 74) - Bowen