Injury-hit West Ham show character to delight Slaven Bilic

“It feels fantastic to be the first Premier League goal scorer at London Stadium and it’s one of those things I can always tell my kids”, he told West Ham TV.

Slaven Bilic felt West Ham just deserved their 1-0 victory over Bournemouth in their first Premier League match at their new London Stadium home.

He powered home a header in the 84th minute against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League clash.

The cause was helped by Bournemouth’s Harry Arter, who eight minutes earlier had been shown the stadium’s first red card.

Those chances seemed to spark West Ham, which lost just one of its last 17 Premier League matches at Upton Park, back into life, and Tore again went close when his venomous volley nestled into the side netting.

West Ham had, however, also had to endure a gruelling midweek trip to Romania and, following their Europa League play-off draw against Astra Giurgiu, only Antonio, Sam Byram, Enner Valencia, Gokhan Tore and skipper Mark Noble made the cut as Slaven Bilić brought half-a-dozen changes to his side.

If West Ham are to fulfil Bilic’s prediction of an atmospheric first season in the London Stadium, they will need better luck with injuries than they are now experiencing.

“In the week, giving away a penalty and then getting taken off straight away, you just can’t let it affect you and [you have to] move on, and luckily I did today and got the victor here”.

Deprived of Dimitri Payet’s creativity and Andy Carroll’s aggression, West Ham’s worn out players looked equally unsure of themselves. “As long as we are winning, competing for something and they are happy, we are going to pack this stadium”.

“It’s frustrating, because he had done a whole pre-season”, admitted Bilic. We’ve got it in the second game of the season and that’s nice’.

It’s always hard being a keeper, because you have to sit there waiting for something bad to happen.

The full-back concluded: “It is a great stadium, the pitch, the atmosphere, it really is special and we are really excited to be playing in this stadium”. “Everybody knows we are short and we will get the players”.

Afterwards the face of Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said it all.

“That’s the one that has to disappoint, the first booking”. We’re going to try to get one if possible.