Two of the Premier League‘s in-form teams could not be separated as West Ham and Bournemouth played out a goalless draw at the London Stadium on Saturday.
Coming into the game, the Hammers had won three and drawn one of their last five league outings, while the Cherries were unbeaten in their last six top-flight fixtures.
So it was perhaps unsurprising that both sides took a share of the points in a match that sprang to life in the second half after a rather drab first 45 minutes.
The result leaves the hosts three points adrift of safety, while the visitors sit in eighth spot in the table.
How the action unfolded
A scramble from a corner nearly saw the hosts open the scoring inside the opening minute.
Moments later, the in-form Crysencio Summerville went close from a wonderful Taty Castellanos cross, but the Dutchman’s poked effort was straight at Djordje Petrovic in the Bournemouth goal.
But following that opening flurry, both goalkeepers quickly became relative bystanders as neither side were able to carve out any clear-cut chances before the break.
After the restart, what had been a fairly lukewarm game then began to simmer.
First, Bournemouth’s Rayan curled an effort onto the outside of the post after a lung-bursting run from his own half, before Castellanos then went close with an acrobatic effort a few minutes later.
With a quarter of an hour left to play, substitute Callum Wilson latched onto Malick Diouf’s delivery into the box, but the former Cherries striker’s poke was kept out by Petrovic.
At the other end, Alex Scott saw his low drive from the edge of the box held well by Mads Hermansen before the Danish stopper was again on hand to deny Junior Kroupi from a similar distance.
Jarrod Bowen had a chance to win it late on but the England international failed to find the target and the points were shared in east London.
