By Sam Tonks
A second-half fightback from Bournemouth inflicted a 2-1 defeat to West Ham at London Stadium, despite the home side's dominance through much of the fixture.
Marko Arnautovic had given the hosts the lead with a first-half penalty, yet an impressive individual goal from Calum Wilson and Steve Cook’s header decided the points in the space of six second-half minutes.
After being welcomed to the pitch with one of the loudest renditions of ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’, West Ham's home campaign began with a tentative start from both sides.
It took 22 minutes for the Bournemouth defence to be exposed, as Arthur Masuaku showed his attacking power down the left wing, utilising an overlapping opportunity, skipping past three defenders but he delayed his cross too long.
The first save came from Asmir Begovic on 26 minutes with Chicharito and Arnie linking up superbly. A pair of one-twos got the Mexican poacher into the left-side of the box, but his shot was tipped wide at the near post.
This livened up Eddie Howe’s team who had a glaring opportunity moments later. New acquisition from Sheffield United, David Brooks, fed an intelligent pass through to Calum Wilson. He beat the offside trap but was met by a superb one-handed save by Lukasz Fabianski.
They would rue this miss as just five minutes later, last year’s Hammer of the Year opened the club's account for the season.
Neat interplay from Jack Wilshere and Filipe Anderson allowed the latter to pick out Chicharito who was in on goal, he was composed round Begovic but looked to be upended by a lunging challenge. The linesman flagged for the penalty and Arnautovic made no mistake, lashing it into the bottom corner.
The Hammers' Austrian talisman nearly doubled the tally in added time. Pablo Zabaleta managed to bend a pin-point through ball to him, 20 yards out, he held off Steve Cook well but couldn’t beat Begovic on this occasion.
Bournemouth now had to take the game to the Hammers and with the second half just a few minutes old, the new Polish stopper made a crucial intervention again. Josh King got in behind on the right and found Brooks in the area, he spun cleverly but his low shot was well saved.
The visitors needed a moment of magic to beat Fabianski in this form, well as the clock ticked past the hour mark, Wilson delivered. On his own in the West Ham half, he held off Mark Noble and Fabien Balbuena then evaded Zabaleta’s challenge and tucked the ball past Fabianski.
Bournemouth had their tails up and turned it around on 67 minutes. Angelo Ogbonna took down Brooks on the right wing, Ryan Fraser lifted the free-kick in and Steve Cook planted his header off the turf and into the roof of the net.
There were late debuts for Carlos Sanchez and Lucas Perez as West Ham now chased the equaliser. The latter, West Ham's new signing, fired in a wicked cross on 80 minutes, but it evaded both Marko Arnautovic and Andriy Yarmolenko, who was arriving at pace toward the back post.
Jack Wilshere was the driving force of the Hammers efforts in the closing stages, unfortunately he couldn’t force his shot past Begovic from the edge of the box in the last few minutes.
A disappointing day for the Hammers as newly promoted Wolves are next to visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park venue.
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