(Reuters) - Bournemouth's Callum Wilson smashed home a wonderful second-half volley and his strike partner Joshua King added a second to give their side a much-needed 2-0 home win over West Ham United in their Premier League clash on Saturday.
With Bournemouth desperate to secure their first league victory in almost a month, Artur Boruc started in goal ahead of Asmir Begovic while West Ham left unsettled striker Marko Arnautovic, who has been linked with a big-money move to China, out of their squad.
Both sides struggled to hit the target in the first half, but West Ham's Lukasz Fabianski made two superb saves early in the second and moments later striker Andy Carroll, in for Arnautovic, blazed over from close range as the game opened up.
Wilson gave the home side the lead with a thunderous volley in the 54th minute, catching the ball perfectly and leaving Fabianski rooted to the spot as it flew into the top right-hand corner for his 10th league goal of the season.
With West Ham attacking and Bournemouth content to play on the counter, Wilson almost got a second in the 71st minute but this time his first-time shot came off the foot of the far post and rolled to safety.
The visitors continued to leave space at the back as they desperately chased an equaliser, and King was able to slot the ball into an empty net after a superb counter-attack to secure all three points for Bournemouth.
"I think the big thing for us today was that we got the breaks -- Carroll didn't take his chance and Callum scored a goal out of nothing really for us at the other end, and then we defended very well to win," Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe said.
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini told reporters he was disappointed with the result and that he preferred not to talk about the absent Arnautovic.
"We don't need to talk about a player that was not in the squad. I never complain about players who are not here. We have nine players injured, let's talk about the ones here that we brought to play this game," he told reporters.
"We didn't win, Marko Arnautovic didn't play so we must have other players to step up."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Toby Davis)
