Lucas Paqueta helps West Ham take positive step as Julen Lopetegui displays previously unseen powers

For West Ham and Lucas Paqueta, a case of what might have been.

On 87 minutes, the Brazilian was making a beeline for the dugout and wrapping his hands around his manager. After two games on the bench, he was restored to the starting line-up by Julen Lopetegui. His hug, after scoring what looked like the winner from the penalty spot, was his way of saying thank you.

That Bournemouth bit back immediately and earned a 1-1 draw through Enes Unal’s simply stunning free-kick made perfect sense in the context of a pulsating game at the Vitality Stadium. Quite right that the game didn’t end goalless; both sides had a catalogue of chances. But for Paqueta and the Hammers, it was a killer.

West Ham came so close to back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time under Lopetegui, but their inability to hold on should not totally eradicate all feelings of positivity on the night.

After all, Lopetegui had displayed powers of in-game management previously unseen in his tenure in charge, while his players had produced a suitably well-organised showing away from home.

Through Jarrod Bowen and Antoine Semenyo, both sides hit the woodwork in the first half, and by the end it was Lukasz Fabianski rather than Kepa Arrizabalaga who was the far busier of the two goalkeepers under the lights at the Vitality.

Bournemouth so nearly took the lead on 12 minutes, and the chance that culminated in Semenyo volleying past Fabianski but against the post was born of a lack of sharpness from the Hammers, second to every ball. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Max Kilman and then Vladimir Coufal all leant half-heartedly into the challenge, and they were fortunate Semenyo didn’t punish them.

Here was a rare instance of hesitation from the Hammers, though, on a night when they came up against one of the league’s most well-coached teams but acquitted themselves well.

Bowen started up front, but soon Lopetegui changed it up to his side’s benefit. Paqueta instead played centrally, with Bowen right, the maverick Mohammed Kudus left, and Paris Saint-Germain loanee Carlos Soler spraying passes in all directions from his favoured position in central attacking midfield.

At one point in the first half, Wan-Bissaka cantered down the left before crossing into the box. There to receive his cross? Not a soul. Paqueta had done well up front, but a focal point was badly needed. You can bet your life Niclas Fullkrug would have been ready and lurking, as would Michail Antonio, whose name was again loudly cheered by the away end and applauded by the home fans on nine minutes.

Lopetegui understood he needed to pose Bournemouth’s centre-backs a new challenge, and so Fullkrug came on, immediately hustling and outmuscling them, acrobatically volleying over the bar and then forcing Kepa into a save with a fierce header.

Paqueta deserved to be benched in recent weeks, having looked vacant in his appearances prior. Here: much better, deserving of his goal — such a coolly-taken spot-kick — and unlucky not to finish on the winning side.

Could West Ham feel similarly hard done by, not to have won? Only by the nature of how they led with less than a minute of normal play to go.

This was a match of real intensity and should go down as a point won rather than two lost.