AFC Bournemouth traveled to London to take on West Ham United on Thursday night. David Moyes’ side won the UEFA Conference League last season, Europe’s third tier competition and have had a campaign in the UEFA Europa League this season. Quite often European exploits take their toll on Premier League sides and their league form suffers. But that has not been the case for West Ham United who find themselves in the top six.
The Cherries meanwhile have enjoyed good form of their own but hit a bump in the road with the harsh 4-0 home defeat to Liverpool, before brushing aside Championship outfit Swansea City 5-0 in the FA Cup.
The fact that this game was played on transfer deadline day added a strange twist to the match, with Kieffer Moore missing from the squad as he had made a move to Ipswich Town on loan.
After the game, AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports…
“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.”
Man of the match against West Ham
Solanke
Christie
Senesi
Cook
Semenyo
Kelly
Someone else
thegazzyb
I love the way we always punt it deep into their half, just to get them used to being pinned in down there 
Iraola is just brilliant. Loving everything about how he tries to impose ourselves on every opponent from the off.
And ending games with us still trying to impose ourselves is so relaxing, compared to what I’ve been used to. It might not always work, but probably more often than not and it’s way better for my blood pressure!
USCherry
Darn….disappointed with the result, but what a great performance. West Ham at home looked like they didn’t know what hit them for the majority of that game
We keep on going 🍒🔥
Onto Sunday 🔜Seguimos trabajando 🍒🔥 pic.twitter.com/VTy4rN44kD
— Marcos Senesi (@senesimarcos) February 1, 2024
Kudos
Amazing performance considering the homer ref and West Ham are basically the new Burnley.
I’d have taken a point but we definitely deserved all three.
Penalty is typical for what will be given against us but never for us.
The most non-penalty goals in the @PremierLeague so far this season…
🏹 Dominic Solanke 🏹 pic.twitter.com/SS8PtnakgS
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) February 2, 2024
"Hopefully I'll be there." 🤞
Should Dominic Solanke be in England's Euros squad this summer? 🤔
🎙 @lynseyhipgrave1 | @A9Mac pic.twitter.com/og2eSOlFzD
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 1, 2024
Waz afcb
We just went away to sixth in the league (they are in form too) and outplayed them, anyone who wants to be negative about that performance really wants to give their head a wobble.
All the good play and chances were created by us, all they did the entire game was win a penalty through a single piece of individual magic. Not going to go in on Kelly at all, he was up against one of the best wingers in the league and he got done in that moment. It happens. Even the best full backs in the world get beaten from time to time so let us not go in on him for that. Mistakes happen.
Today really was all about Ryan Christie again, their midfield has been receiving a nauseating amount of plaudits this season but Ryan was comfortably the best midfielder on the park today imo. His tactical awareness and reading of the game, coupled with his technical flair and non-stop work rate makes him the best central midfielder I’ve ever seen in a Bournemouth shirt. If he could shoot he would genuinely be playing for Liverpool, he’s that good.
Thought that aside from Christie nobody was particularly outstanding but at the same time I don’t think that anybody was particularly poor either. The one exception to this was Tavernier, my one frustration with Iraola is his insistence to play him on the left-hand side. He looks half the player on that side of the pitch and I don’t know why he’s persisting with him on that side, in fact both him and Semenyo look better playing inverted so it’s a strange one. All Tav really does when he plays on the left is run into blind alleys and inevitably lose the ball, but he’s such a threat cutting in on the other side.
Special shout out to Favaire too who looked classy when he came on, think he might be a good option for us. Kluivert also looked lively when coming on.
It was disappointing not to take our chances and we did deserve to win, but I’d rather be creating them and missing than not at all so the signs are good. You must remember that as poor as they looked, West Ham are 6th for a reason and they are a very efficient and well-oiled machine despite not being easy on the eye. A point is a good result and the performance was decent. – Join the conversation, click here.
