West Ham enter the top half of the table for the first time this season beating Bournemouth 2-0 thanks to goals from Kurt Zouma and Said Benrahma.
VAR Controversy
The game started off slowly, with the main bright spark of the first 40 minutes being Aaron Cresswell’s shot that was tipped over the bar by Cherries’ keeper Neto.
But just as it looked like West Ham would once again go into the halftime goalless, they found a breakthrough when Bournemouth failed to clear the ball from an inswinging corner and Zouma, making his 200th Premier League appearance, glanced the ball into the goal.
Bournemouth players were quick to complain about the goal as the ball appeared to hit Thilo Kehrer’s arm in the build-up. However, VAR allowed the goal to stand as the handball was deemed accidental and didn’t directly result in a goal.
Brilliant Benrahma
Hammers’ keeper Lukasz Fabiański remained mostly unworried throughout the game despite late pressure from the visitors, before Benrahma slotted away a penalty late on past substitute keeper Mark Travers to make sure West Ham would end the evening in 10th.
The penalty was awarded by the video assistant referee (VAR) after Vladimir Coufal’s cross hit Bournemouth’s Jordan Zemura arm which was judged to have been in an unnatural position.
In the end the game came down to two controversial handball decisions. One was given, one wasn’t, both favoured West Ham.
Post-Match Interviews
The main talking point of the game was about how Zouma’s goal was allowed the stand after it seemed Kehrer handled the ball beforehand. Speaking to BBC Sport interim Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil simply said, “It’s a handball, that’s a fact.”
As reported by football.london, West Ham manager David Moyes admitted he hadn’t watched the incident but said his side’s performance deserved the win regardless.
“I generally couldn’t tell you, I don’t know. What I would say is that the performance merited probably better goals than we scored and I don’t think that there was any doubt that we were the better side and we probably deserved to win the game.”
What’s Next?
West Ham only get three days rest before playing Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, they then make a trip to Old Trafford on Sunday to play Manchester United.
Edited By: Joshkun Salih
