West Ham 3 Bournemouth 4: Wilson hat-trick seals historic win

Callum Wilson grabbed a hat-trick as Bournemouth secured their first Premier League victory by defeating 10-man West Ham 4-3 at Upton Park in a seven-goal thriller. 

Wilson took advantage of two defensive errors from Aaron Cresswell to put the visitors 2-0 up at the break, but the hosts hit back early in the second half with Mark Noble and Cheikhou Kouyate finding the net in the space of four minutes.

Apparently untroubled by that double setback, however, the south-coast side, in the top flight for the first time, continued to throw men forward and earned their reward when Marc Pugh restored their lead after 66 minutes.

And Wilson then added the fourth from the penalty spot after Carl Jenkinson had brought down Max Gradel, earning a red card for his troubles.

West Ham did manage to reduce the arrears through Modibo Maiga, but it did not prove enough to deny Bournemouth their historic triumph.

The hosts had headed into the game without the suspended Adrian and injured Mauro Zarate, while Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe again opted to name new defensive recruits Sylvain Distin and Tyrone Mings on the bench.

Bournemouth looked lively during the opening exchanges and duly took the lead after 11 minutes, inadvertently assisted by some poor defending from Cresswell.
 
The West Ham left-back allowed himself to be nudged off the ball by Simon Francis and his low cross was gleefully rifled into the roof of the net by Wilson from close range.
 
And, although the home side did mount some pressure in the wake of that early setback, Bournemouth continued to threaten on the break, with only some desperate defending from Jenkinson preventing Gradel from doubling his side’s advantage midway through the half.
 
That proved to be a temporary reprieve for Slaven Bilic’s men, however, as they gifted their opponents another goal just short of the half-hour mark.
 
The hapless Cresswell was at fault again, this time under-hitting an attempted back-pass to Darren Randolph and allowing Wilson to nip in and calmly side-foot home.  
 
Bilic’s response was to replace Angelo Ogbonna with James Tomkins, the fact that the Italian international did not appear to receive any treatment suggesting that his premature exit was not an enforced one.
 
Not that Tomkins’ introduction did much to improve the faltering West Ham defence, with only a superb save from Randolph preventing Gradel from adding a third for rampant Bournemouth in first-half stoppage time.

It was Bournemouth’s turn to produce some inept defending immediately after the restart, however, as they conceded two soft goals in quick succession.

The first came via a penalty after Josh King needlessly clipped Noble just inside the box and the long-serving West Ham midfielder duly stepped up to send Artur Boruc the wrong way from the spot.

And moments later Diafra Sakho was allowed to latch on to a long throw from Jenkinson and, although Boruc saved his initial shot, the rebound was swept in by Kouyate.

Undaunted, however, Bournemouth continued to attack and regained the lead after 66 minutes.

Shortly after seeing his fierce shot palmed away by Randolph, Pugh was given far too much room down the right and having dummied Jenkinson, he found the top corner with a superb right-foot curler.

With 12 minutes left, Jenkinson compounded his miserable afternoon by bringing down Gradel. 

Off went the on-loan Arsenal defender, continuing an alarming trend of red cards that has developed since Bilic took charge, before Wilson fired home from the spot to secure the match-ball.

And although Maiga gave West Ham some late hope with a neat finish, Bournemouth were not to be denied.