Bournemouth 1-1 West Ham: Stunning Unal free-kick salvages a point

Enes Unal’s incredible 90th-minute free-kick earned Bournemouth a point as they salvaged a 1-1 draw against West Ham at the Vitality Stadium on Monday.

Bournemouth looked set for a frustrating defeat when Lucas Paqueta’s 87th-minute penalty put the Hammers ahead, the Brazilian converting coolly from the spot when Tyler Adams was ruled to have handled Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross following a VAR review.

After Antoine Semenyo and Jarrod Bowen struck the woodwork at either end during a frantic first half, West Ham were indebted to goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski for making a string of excellent saves.

His most impressive stop came when he scrambled across his line to keep out Dango Ouattara, with Evanilson and Ryan Christie also denied as Bournemouth were kept at bay.

However, West Ham’s resistance was broken in stunning fashion with stoppage time looming. On as an 80th-minute substitute for Evanilson, Unal picked out the top-left corner with a tremendous dead-ball effort from 25 yards out, earning his team a point.

The Cherries remain sixth in the Premier League table with 25 points, three adrift of the top four. West Ham, meanwhile, stay 14th with 19, seven clear of the relegation zone.

6 & 8 – Bournemouth have scored more goals in the 90th minute than any other side in the Premier League this season (6), while the Cherries have scored eight goals via substitutes in the competition this term, the most of any side in the competition. Sweet. pic.twitter.com/JFYMCJTEHc

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 16, 2024

Data Debrief: Super sub Unal keeps Bournemouth flying high

Having emerged as surprise contenders for Europe, Bournemouth will hope the depth of their squad allows them to continue grinding out results.

Their eight goals via substitutes are the most in the Premier League this season, while three of Unal’s four strikes in the competition have now come from the bench.

The point keeps the Cherries inside the Premier League’s top six, just the second time they have ended a day in such a lofty position in the table at least 15 games into a season, previously doing so in December 2018 under Eddie Howe.