West Ham and Bournemouth went at it on Saturday as they drew 2-2 at London Stadium in an end-to-end game.
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Bournemouth took the lead through Evanilson but West Ham flipped the script quickly in the second half as Niclas Fullkrug and Jarrod Bowen headed home in quick succession.
But Evanilson was on hand to tap home another late on to grab a point for Bournemouth and that was a fair result.
With the point West Ham move on to 35 points for the season, while Bournemouth continue to lose ground in their hunt for European qualification and are on 45 points.
Cherries no longer ripe
Bournemouth had done so well to put themselves on 43 points with 13 games of the season remaining and had all of the momentum among the pack of unlikely Champions League contenders. But then they fell flat and have won one of their last six games. Andoni Iraola got plenty of players back from injury just ahead of this poor run and it seems to have impacted the incredible cohesion Bournemouth had in a negative way. In truth, it’s probably a combination of that and also the players who were being run into the ground due to injury finally suffering from fatigue. Tyler Adams talked about mental fatigue after their narrow home defeat in the FA Cup quarterfinal to Manchester City and that’s fair enough. Bournemouth will still record an outstanding season for the squad of players they have but Iraola’s aim has to be to capitalize on so many perennial powers having down years and qualify for Europe. That is still within their grasp and they have a very favorable run of games to finish the season. All is not lost but Bournemouth have to find the right combinations again fast, especially in midfield and defense. They’ve become too easy to score against and can’t sustain their high-tempo play to keep opponents far away from their own goal. That was always likely to happen late in the season but Iraola has to find a solution in order to stop a fine season fizzling out.
West Ham vs Bournemouth player ratings (via FotMob.com)
What’s next?
West Ham head to Liverpool on Sunday, April 13. Bournemouth host Fulham on Monday, April 14.
West Ham vs Bournemouth score: 2-2
Fullkrug 61', Bowen 69'; Evanilson 38', 79'
Evanilson taps home — West Ham 2-2 Bournemouth
A free kick is played to the back post and Huijsen heads back across goal and Evanilson is there to tap home another one. VAR has checked for offside but the goal stands. West Ham won’t be happy because the initial free kick given against them was very soft.
ANOTHER TWIST. Bournemouth strike back to make it 2-2 as Evanilson levels the scores once again!
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) April 5, 2025
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Bowen powers home a superb header! — West Ham 2-1 Bournemouth
Kudus digs out a brilliant cross from the left and Bowen climbs high and directs a great header into the far corner. He produced all of the power on that. Wow. West Ham turn it around in less than 10 minutes!
WEST HAM HAVE FLIPPED THE SCRIPT. JARROD BOWEN GIVES THEM THE LEAD!
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) April 5, 2025
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Fullkrug powers home a header! — West Ham 1-1 Bournemouth
There he is! Niclas Fullkrug jumps off the bench and a few minutes later he’s leaping to meet a corner and power a header home. Ward-Prowse with a magnificent corner and Fullkrug was the only player who was going to head that. That is what we expected to see this season from the German international, but he’s had so many injuries. 1-1 with over 30 minutes to go. Exciting finale here!
INSTANT IMPACT from Niclas Füllkrug, who equalizes for West Ham.
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) April 5, 2025
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Evanilson puts the Cherries ahead! — West Ham 0-1 Bournemouth
Oh no. Areola is not going to want to see that back. He palms Semenyo’s shot straight to Evanilson who taps in. Bournemouth deservedly lead.
Bournemouth go close
Evanilson can’t head home after a wonderful cross. Bournemouth have started the game really well.
West Ham lineup
Areola; Todibo, Kilman, Alvarez; Wan-Bissaka, Paqueta, Ward-Prowse, Soucek, Scarles; Kudus, Bowen
Bournemouth lineup
Kepa; Smith, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkrez; Christie, Adams; Semenyo, Scott, Ouattara; Evanilson
West Ham team news
OUT: Michail Antonio (DETAILS), Crysencio Summerville (hamstring) | QUESTIONABLE: Mohammed Kudus (undisclosed), Jean-Clair Todibo (illness), Emerson Palmieri (knee), Luis Guilherme (calf)
Bournemouth team news
OUT: Ryan Christie (groin), Luis Sinisterra (hamstring), Enes Unal (knee), Marcus Tavernier (ankle) | QUESTIONABLE: Julian Araujo (thigh), Justin Kluivert (undisclosed)
West Ham vs Bournemouth prediction
Chances will be at an incredible premium, unless Bournemouth can consistently force West Ham to give the ball away by pressing high up the field, which is a distinct possibility given their respective track records. West Ham 0-1 Bournemouth.
West Ham vs Bournemouth preview
Graham Potter’s tall task will truly begin in the summer when the transfer window opens, but West Ham (16th - 34 points) have made little progress since he made his debut on Jan. 14 (3W-2D-5L in 10 Premier League games). What’s worse is the Hammers have scored just nine goals in those 10 games, and three of them came in his debut (on just four shots). What’s worst is they have failed to score a single goal in half of Potter’s games in charge. You can take the Moyes/Lopetegui out of the team, but… well, you know the rest.
Scoring goals hasn’t been much of a problem for Bournemouth (10th - 44 points) of late, but preventing them certainly has. Andoni Iraola’s side has kept just one clean sheet in their last 10 PL games en route to an identical recent record of 3W-2D-5L. After beating Nottingham Forest 5-0 back on Jan. 25, the Cherries were just one point out of the Champions League places, but they enter the weekend seven behind 5th-place Manchester City with just eight games left to play.
How to watch West Ham vs Bournemouth live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 10 am ET Saturday
Venue: London Stadium — London
TV Channel: Peacock
Streaming: Watch live on Peacock Premium
