West Ham played better and had the best chances but couldn’t break the deadlock at home against Bournemouth.
The Hammers needed a win to momentarily leave the relegation zone. Burnley’s unexpected draw away at Chelsea added some pressure for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men to get a result. They had the opportunities but ultimately failed to capitalise.
Meanwhile the Cherries could have leapfrogged Brentford who lost at home to Brighton and Hove Albion earlier today. The 0-0 draw kept both sides’ unbeaten runs intact, but served no purpose for their aspirations in the table.
What led to a fun goalless draw between West Ham and Bournemouth?
Early West Ham signs
Teams often start games with the famous “15 minutes of pressure” and then slowly fade away. This was not the case for West Ham.
The early indications that they would bring danger to the opposition remained alive until the end. Just four minutes into the match, the home side had three great chances – two with Axel Disasi in the same play and one with Crysencio Summerville. According to Opta’s expected goals model, those three attempts alone amassed 1.05 xG.
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In addition to that, set pieces – that gave them the two chances with Disasi – would also play a huge part throughout the game. Jarrod Bowen’s and Summerville’s in-swinging corners caused havoc inside Bournemouth’s box.
The Cherries are already the team with the most set-piece goals conceded in the Premier League this season. Djordje Petrovic had a hard time dealing with them all game long. It also didn’t help that Bournemouth themselves gave away silly fouls that let West Ham launch balls into the box for fun.
Substitutions that blew the game open
It was a fun 0-0 in the end, but only thanks to Bournemouth coming alive midway through the second half. Before that, it was basically all West Ham.
There are two main reasons for that – two substitutions, one from each side. In the 66th minute, assistant Shaun Cooper made a double change: David Brooks on for Amine Adli, a like-for-like substitution, and Ryan Christie on for Tyler Adams.
The latter made the Cherries more exposed considering Christie is originally an attacking midfielder. He did play in a similar area and was combative defensively, but covers less ground and has more tendencies to go forward than Adams.
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In return, Nuno undid his 4-3-3 that often turned into a 4-2-3-1 with Tomas Soucek in the number 10 spot as a modern day Marouane Fellaini from his Everton days. Striker Callum Wilson replaced the Czech midfielder and made it more of a 4-4-2 alongside Taty Castellanos.
From then on, both teams had more opportunities and space to run and counter. Out of the 30 shot attempts in the whole match, 16 came from the 67th minute onwards, as opposed to just 14 until then.
And yet, West Ham were better even when Bournemouth finally introduced themselves into the fray. There is a clear difference in the location and quality of the chances. The Cherries couldn’t get near the goal while the Hammers lived inside the six-yard box.
Contrast in Bournemouth’s strategies
West Ham started off with intent and dominated the first five minutes, but quickly reverted back to their usual selves in terms of possession. Mid-to-low block, looking for counter-attacks and accelerating the play down the wings.
Bournemouth did manage to take control of the match in terms of dictating the actions, but never dominated the Hammers. Their possession tally roved around 60% for most of the game – though it never turned into true danger.
However, this doesn’t come exactly as a surprise. The Cherries have won admirers and fans around the league due to their chaotic nature and ability to turn any seemingly normal build-up into a fast break.
This only materialised at London Stadium in the second half. Three of their first four attempts in the game – and also four of their first seven – originated from counter-attacks. Of the three shots that came from build-ups in open play, two of them were in artificial transitions.
Rayan and Alex Scott were the main stand-outs in this regard. David Brooks also played well off the bench and gave the attack a bit of life. The Brazilian nearly scored a wonder goal but saw his effort graze the bar before going wide.
But even then they didn’t look at their best and couldn’t create a single big chance. West Ham did, but failed to capitalise.