Kurt Zouma scored a controversial header to help West Ham produce one of the most comfortable football results of the weekend in the Premier League. The fact that David Moyes’ club entered the game 17th in the standings was not a reflection of how they performed; rather, injuries presented their biggest preseason barrier. The London Stadium has experienced a mixed bag of emotions as a result of West Ham’s three wins in their previous 11 games, which were partially the result of absent players, missed penalties, and VAR woes. However, in this instance, they were the winners of a change in the law before those spot-kick issues were resolved.
Tomas Soucek’s header back across the goal set up Jarrod Bowen’s corner, which was eventually glanced in by Zouma. However, the Bournemouth players were upset because they felt Thilo Kehrer handled the ball during the build-up. When West Ham’s replacement Jordan Zemura touched Vladimir Coufal’s cross in the last seconds of the game, Benrahma was given a penalty, which he converted to secure the victory.
The Hammers have played more games than any other Premier League team, but this time around, exhaustion could not be an excuse due to the extra respite they received before playing the weekend’s final game. Given that this was West Ham’s seventh of nine games in October—the month that has felt like the most active in football this year—all that Moyes will worry about is that his team defeated a Bournemouth team that seemed to have caught the injury bug from the Hammers.
After referee Coote had been instructed to study the pitchside monitor to see Zemura’s infraction from Coufal’s cross, it was as near as they would get to an unexpected point before Benrahma added the extra gloss from 12 yards. It made Bournemouth’s misfortune worse on a night when not much went their way.
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