The David Moyes era is off to a flying start thanks to West Ham United’s 4-0 demolition of woeful Bournemouth at the London Stadium on Wednesday.
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Mark Noble scored twice, once from the spot, to join Felipe Anderson and Sebastien Haller on the score sheet.
Bournemouth sinks into 18th with 20 points, two points and places behind the hosts.
Three things we learned
1. Key pieces give David Moyes a dream (re)debut: Manuel Pellegrini will be shaking his fists at the sky after West Ham’s biggest names delivered on Wednesday (Actually, he seems like a classy guy and he’s probably happy for them). Anderson and Haller both scored, and their awakening is paramount to the Irons success. The opponents won’t always be visitors and Bournemouth, but this was a professional home win and cannot be discounted given the misery around the London side.
2. Cherries table spot fits their season: Bournemouth dipped into the Bottom Three thanks to Aston Villa joining West Ham as teams to collect three points on Wednesday. It could’ve been so much worse than 4-0, as Aaron Ramsdale made a few decent saves and the Irons also missed some gilt-edged chances. Don’t take too much away from West Ham’s response to a new manager and their attacking talent, but Bournemouth looked so, so bad in being out shot 14-3.
3. Cresswell sending off overturned: Aaron Cresswell drew a straight red card in the 75th minute with a studs-up tackle. Ugly stuff on a beautiful day for the Irons, but their fortunate day continued when VAR took it from a red to a yellow.
Man of the Match: Noble. Moyes said he was gonna lean on his captain, and “Mr. West Ham” was didn’t mind the extra weight.
Bournemouth’s been as bad as West Ham, and the hosts punished their poor defending twice in the first 26 minutes.
First, Felipe Anderson and Robert Snodgrass conducted some in-box interplay before the latter set up Noble for his opener.
Then Haller used a scissor kick after Snodgrass cued up a Ryan Fredericks cross to the Frenchman.
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Liverpool loanee Harry Wilson then put Noble to the turf for a 34th minute penalty. The captain rolled it in.
Anderson missed a chance to make it 4-0 in the 66th minute and was due to be subbed off when he cashed in a second chance.
The ex-Lazio attacker took a terrific first touch of a fantastic Declan Rice diagonal ball and dribbled into the 18 to roll past Aaron Ramsdale.
That’s when Aaron Cresswell lost his mind, tackling Ryan Fraser to see straight red in the 75th. Fortunately for him, VAR saw a clear and obvious error. Very fortunate.