WEST HAM made hard work of securing Monday night’s home victory over Bournemouth at the London Stadium. 

Lacking the subtle touches of injured midfielder Luis Paqueta, West Ham spent too much time going back and across, rather than forward.

The inventive touches on the night came from Said Benrahma, aided by striker Gianluca Scamacca.

An early effort from Flynn Downes was beaten out by Bournemouth keeper Neto, only for Aaron Cresswell to fire wide.

Bournemouth offered only one real effort in the first half: Tomas Soucek give the ball away to Dominic Solanke, who then failed to trouble Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski.

The first goal came just prior to half time. In a game of head tennis in the penalty area,  Soucek headed on to Kurt Zouma who turned it into the net. A VAR check found that Thilo Kehrer had not handled en route to the goal.

The second half began with Benrahma shooting just over from a deft Scamacca cross-field ball. Declan Rice then hit a stinging volley from outside the area but Neto punched it away at full stretch.

The replacement of Scamacca with Michail Antonio for the final 15 minutes coincided with the visitors enjoying their best period of play, dominating possession, but Bournemouth lacked the cutting edge to convert possession into goals.

At the death, Jordan Zemura was adjudged by VAR to have handled a Vladimir Coufal cross from the right. Benrahma duly converted the penalty.

Hammers manager David Moyes was full of praise for Benrahma. “He’s so important for us. He’s a dribbler who takes people on,” said Moyes.

He said he thought his side are now in a decent top-10 position after a poor start to the season.

It was a game of two hands for Bournemouth interim manager Gary O’Neill, who could not believe that West Ham’s first goal had been allowed to stand following the Kehrer hand-ball.

“His hand moved toward the ball,” said an aggrieved O’Neill, who also felt there was a foul in the passage of play leading to the hand-ball. He thought the penalty unfortunate but probably justified.