If West Ham are gradually improving then Bournemouth may be regressing to the mean. The greater Premier League experience and squad depth told in an encounter that will linger in nobody’s memory once the VAR controversy has died down over Kurt Zouma’s opening goal, what looked a plum but not given red card for Bournemouth’s Jefferson Lerma and a handball by Jordan Zemura that set up Saïd Benrahma’s late penalty.
David Moyes’s team has a useful habit of digging out victory when pressure is coming down. Gary O’Neil’s fledgling managerial career is meanwhile undergoing its first slump, and defeat at the London Stadium, the second in succession, came at the cost of what looked troublesome injuries for his key striker and first-choice goalkeeper. The Premier League’s smallest, perhaps least distinguished squad, have three matches to see out until their well-earned World Cup break.
