Our unbeaten start to the Premier League season came to a disappointing end on Saturday afternoon as Bournemouth’s early goal was enough to secure them all three points.
Having kept back-to-back clean sheets in our opening two victories, we conceded just five minutes in at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with Evanilson’s deflected effort finding the back of the net.
Had it not been for the outstanding performance of Guglielmo Vicario, it would have been an even heavier defeat as the Italy international made a string of excellent saves to prevent Bournemouth extending their lead. It wasn’t until the closing stages that we put any pressure on the Cherries’ defence but managed just one shot on target throughout the match as we suffered a frustrating defeat.
Thomas Frank kept faith with the side that started last weekend’s win at Manchester City and we created an opportunity inside the first minute as Pape Matar Sarr got in down the left flank but Bournemouth scrambled the ball away. Instead, we fell behind in the fifth minute. Marcos Senesi threaded a pass into Evanilson and his left-foot drive flicked off Cristian Romero and looped over Vicario, the first goal we’d conceded in the league this season. It should have been 2-0 six minutes later but a wonderful David Brooks cross was headed over six yards out by Antoine Semenyo.
The visitors were having all the chances in the early stages, Vicario having to dive across to his left to push away a curling Brooks free-kick before the Cherries man headed Alex Scott’s corner over. In truth, we just never got going in the first period with the visitors snuffing out every attack we tried to create with tight marking and strong tackling. We ended the half without a single effort at goal, very much second best and with plenty of work to do.
However, it was Bournemouth on the front foot again to open up the second period, Semenyo’s angled left-foot shot excellently tipped away by Vicario. And we escaped moments later as the keeper was quickly off his line to smother Evanilson from close range and, on the rebound, Brooks’ shot flicked off Vicario and hit the crossbar before we cleared the danger. It was virtually a one-man show keeping the visitors out as Vicario then made another diving save to deny Brooks in the 53rd minute.
Less than 10 minutes into the half, we made a double switch with Wison Odobert and Lucas Bergvall replacing Brennan Johnson and Joao Palhinha and our first shot on target came in the 69th minute when Richarlison set up Bergvall whose effort from the edge of the box was straight at Dorde Petrovic. Back up the other end, Vicario was at it again, stand up big to keep out Tyler Adams’ effort from a tight angle before an opportunity fell our way in the 79th minute when substitute Destiny Udogie’s cut-back bounced nicely for Odobert but his effort was way over the bar.
We were finally able to exert some pressure on the Bournemouth defence in the final 10 minutes as they dropped deep to protect their slender advantage and we almost scored a stunning equaliser when Mathys Tel’s acrobatic shot from 18 yards out flew a couple of yards wide. One final chance came our way deep into seven minutes of stoppage time as Mohammed Kudus – who kept trying to make things happen down our right flank – whipped in a free-kick from out wide and Udogie got a glancing header to the ball, only to see it drift past the far upright.