Slaven Bilic: ‘I am under pressure’

The Croatian made another switch at the interval bringing Matt Jarvis on for Kevin Nolan and it appeared to have the desired effect as the home side found themselves level eight minutes into the second half.

Marc Pugh restored Bournemouth’s lead and Wilson completed his treble from the penalty spot after West Ham defender Carl Jenkinson was sent off for clipping Max Gradel in the box. Modibo Maiga got a home third but Howe’s men survived.

The 26-year-old took to Twitter to defend himself from what he called “an outrageous slur on my professionalism” after West Ham chairman David Sullivan raised questions about the striker’s fitness.

“It would be good for us to buy but only to add quality players in some of the positions”, Bilic said.

“The pleasing thing from his perspective is he was clinical”. Pugh’s goal is key, a fantastic finish.

“Our changing room is full of winners – we didn’t win the league past year by not having a winning attitude”.

While Bournemouth have lost their first two matches, one of the positives they can take from their start of the season is that their star from last season, Matt Ritchie, has not looked out of his depth at Premier League level. I know it was hot but it was hot for them as well. Thankfully the players had the belief. For Jenkinson he had a hand in the other two goals and inexplicably played like a rabbit caught in the headlights for the whole game.

Tottenham continued their disappointing start to the season as they failed once again to register a win at Leicester, with rising star Riyad Mahrez replying with a fierce strike just 90 seconds after Spurs’ Dele Alli opened the scoring in the 81st minute.

However, back-to-back home defeats have quickly killed the euphoria of that opening win at the Emirates – and Bilic says victory has perhaps made his side complacent, despite his warnings to them that such a mentality would be “suicidal”.

“I’ve been waiting to the opportunity to play in this league”, said the former Coventry man. “We simply need a better mentality”. The first halves against Leicester and Bournemouth were just not good enough.

Bournemouth (4-4-2): Boruc 5; Francis 7, Elphick 7, Cook 7, Daniels 7; Ritchie 6 (Smith 90), O’Kane 6, Surman 6, Gradel 8 (Gosling 85); King 6 (Pugh 51, 7), Wilson 9.

Eddie Howe accepts that Bournemouth’s image could be undermining them. “Bournemouth scored goals – for every goal you have to give credit to the opponent”.

“In the first two games I think there were nerves, but today I felt we showed real confidence”, the 23-year-old Wilson told the BBC.

“If you do those kinds of mistakes, individual errors in front of your own goal, the outcome is going to be defeat”.