So the first hat-trick of the new Barclays Premier League season was scored not by Wayne Rooney, Sergio Agüero or any of the leading superstars, but by a 23-year old Bournemouth forward playing only his third game in the top flight, after working his way up from the third tier via two spells on loan in non-League football.
But even though he was assisted by one of the most inept defensive displays at this level in recent memory, there was plenty to admire about Callum Wilson’s two first-half finishes at Upton Park on Saturday and his second-half penalty.
“I haven’t scored a hat-trick before,” he said. “On my debut for Bournemouth, I scored two and missed a penalty for a third. Today it was a bit of a relief that the third went in — I must have been waiting to score it [a hat-trick] in the Premier League.”
Wilson spent five years at Coventry City, which included loans to Kettering Town and Tamworth, before Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth manager, signed him in July 2014. “I feel like it’s been hard work. I’ve had my injuries, I’ve had to come back from that,” Wilson said.
“But when you’re at the bottom there’s only one way to go and that’s up. From a young age, all I’ve wanted to do is play in the Premier League, and to get here now and get my first hat-trick is something you can never imagine. There’s no better place to be playing your football than here [with Bournemouth] because I’m going to get opportunities to play, the manager has shown faith and hopefully I can keep repaying that this season.”
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Howe, unsurprisingly, agreed that Wilson would be better off playing for him every week rather than warming the bench of a bigger club, but he also suggested that greater things may lie ahead. “I think he’s got more growing to do and that should be his aim, to play for the very top clubs,” Howe said. “He’s quick, he’s strong, he works incredibly hard, he’s a real handful — but he knows where the goal is and any striker’s best asset is when they score.”
Thanks to Wilson, Bournemouth’s moral victory away to Liverpool last Monday was followed by the genuine article in east London, although the 1-0 defeat at Anfield was arguably a more compact performance. They might still be waiting for their first top-flight win if they had made as many defensive errors against a better team than West Ham.
“There were certainly lessons to be learnt, because the goals we conceded were through our mistakes,” Howe said. “You would prefer to win 2-0 as a coach, but if it’s 4-3 every week, I’ll take it. You stay up with wins, it doesn’t matter whether it’s clean sheets or goals. Burnley went down last year through potentially not scoring enough and other sides have gone down through being free-scoring but leaking goals at the other end, so we’ve got to get the balance right.”
West Ham had the balance wrong with their defending, individually and as a team, especially shambolic. Only Darren Randolph, the goalkeeper, who was West Ham’s man of the match on his league debut for the club, emerged with any credit, even though he must be sick of the sight of Bournemouth after conceding 16 goals to them in three matches when playing for Birmingham City.
Having been defeated by Leicester City nine days ago, West Ham have won only two of their past nine home games in the Premier League, five of which have been lost. Slaven Bilic, the manager, reflected that his team’s opening-day victory away to Arsenal may have been a mixed blessing.
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“Maybe we think we are going to do that [again] nice and easy, or in style,” he said. “But in the Premier League against most of the clubs you have to dig in to have a chance to get points.
“On one hand you cannot panic and lose your path and change a lot, but you have to continue to work with more determination, work with more passion. I am under pressure. That comes with the territory and that is why I have to turn it around.”
While a shortage of forwards may not seem to be the obvious problem, Bilic did not rule out signing a striker, with Mauro Zárate, Enner Valencia and, inevitably, Andy Carroll all injured. He refused to discuss, though, the suggestion that a player named Callum Wilson might be the answer.
Ratings
West Ham United (4-2-3-1): D Randolph 7 — C Jenkinson 4, W Reid 5, P Ogbonna 4 (sub: J Tomkins, 35min 5), A Cresswell 3 — P Obiang 5, M Noble 7 — C Kouyaté 6, D Payet 5, K Nolan 4 (sub: M Jarvis, 46 6) — D Sakho 6 (sub: M Maïga, 74). Substitutes not used: R Spiegel, J Collins, M Lanzini, J Cullen. Sent off: Jenkinson.
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Bournemouth (4-4-1-1): A Boruc 5 — S Francis 7, T Elphick 6, S Cook 5, C Daniels 6 — M Ritchie 6 (sub: A Smith, 90min), E O’Kane 6, A Surman 7, M Gradel 7 (sub: D Gosling, 85) — J King 6 (sub: M Pugh, 51 7) — C Wilson 8. Substitutes not used: A Federici, T Mings, Y Kermorgant, S Distin. Booked: Boruc.
Red mist
West Ham players have received five red cards in their nine matches this term, already their joint highest tally in any full season as a Premier League club in the past ten years.
There have been dismissals for Diafra Sakho, James Tomkins and James Collins in the Europa League and for Adrián and Carl Jenkinson in the league.
West Ham suffered seven sendings-off in their only season in the Championship in this period, but otherwise their total of five in 2013-14 is their biggest since 2005.