After a decidedly dull Carabao Cup encounter seemingly destined for penalties from the opening whistle, it was fitting that West Ham scrounged a controversial late Jarrod Bowen winner.
Locked goalless against Bournemouth for 88 minutes, the hosts benefited from a huge slice of luck when Mohammed Kudus’s shot smashed into the West Ham captain and ricocheted into the net from a couple of yards out. Did it hit his arm? Video replays are not in use in this competition, so a verdict was not required. Instead, Julen Lopetegui’s 58th birthday ended in celebration.
As is customary at this stage of the domestic cups’ lesser-loved sibling, both teams fielded much-changed sides from their last league outings, with 15 of the 22 starting players coming into their respective teams for the tie.
That allowed Lopetegui to have a look at the bulk of the £100m-plus talent his club brought in over the summer, including first starts for Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Füllkrug, the Bundesliga’s joint-leading goalscorer two seasons ago.
The German striker’s towering presence brought a natural inclination to lump long balls in his direction, but the tactic brought little joy for the home side in an opening period that without much to raise the steady hum of an absent-minded crowd, at least until the final few minutes of the half.
It was Wan-Bissaka – deployed at left-back after a last-minute alteration to the original XI – who provided the hosts’ greatest threat, regularly linking up with Summerville. The former Manchester United defender twice briefly awakened the London Stadium when carving routes through the defence that eventually reached dead ends, before both sides went close near half-time.
Starting for the first time since joining from Leeds, Summerville played a defence-splitting one-two with Füllkrug, only to blaze wildly over the bar. Then, Dango Ouattara almost gave Bournemouth a spectacular lead with an acrobatic backheeled effort that forced Lukasz Fabianski into a smart save low to his right.
For all that the teams seemed to have checked out during much of the first half, they matched each other for renewed vigour immediately after the break. Summerville thought he had put his side ahead a minute, but sank to his knees in disbelief when his curled effort from range slid inches wide.
At the other end of the pitch, Bournemouth’s record signing, Evanilson, was brought on to replace the anonymous Daniel Jebbison at half-time and the Brazilian immediately caused headaches for West Ham.
Andoni Iraola’s side looked the more likely to break the deadlock as both managers shuffled their packs. Indeed, the hosts were indebted to a fantastic bit of defending from the impressive Wan-Bissaka who dispossessed Justin Kluivert when the Bournemouth substitute was put through on goal.
But, with penalties looming, West Ham somehow found a winner.