It was great to see us win our first match of the season against newly-promoted Nottingham Forest. We played very well and were full value for the three points.
Last season, we had to wait until December for our first victory. It underlines how far the club have come in such a short amount of time.
There will still be concerns about the lack of attacking signings, but the performance shows that we are going in the right direction. Below, we list three interesting stats from the game:
23 shots – 9 on target
This one may be overlooked, but it was evident of the dominance we showed during the match. Last season, one of our biggest issues was a low shot volume with an average of 11.66 per ninety minutes. We weren’t creating enough chances and players seemed reluctant to shoot.
Considering we haven’t signed an attacker yet, the improvement in these numbers suggests a lot of work on the training ground.
We also tested the goalkeeper with nine of those shots and if we can regularly get this number of shots during home matches, we will win more than we lose.
Eddie Howe knows we still need attacking reinforcements to add quality. However, the system is starting to produce results.
Kieran Trippier – 12 progressive passes
Trippier still feels like a relatively new signing, as we didn’t get to see as much of him last season as we would have liked. Today was a clear indicator of what he will bring to the team. He is classy in possession and reliable at the back, even if he does lack some pace.
With the ball, he made 12 progressive passes, which was more than any other player on the pitch. Trippier always looks to be positive with the ball and can break lines with his quality. The team was a lot more progressive with the ball yesterday and a big reason for that was our captain on the day.
Further to the above, he made eight passes into the final third, another game high. Trippier will be key to our build up play this season. This was an excellent start to his campaign.
Allan Saint-Maximin – 21 progressive carries
This was an excellent first day performance from the Frenchman and showed the progress he is making under Eddie Howe. There were still occasions where he made the wrong decision with the ball, but he was a lot more effective than he was last season.
He made 21 progressive carries during the game. No player made more during the Premier League weekend. The next best was Lucas Digne with 12.
This will give Saint-Maximin a lot of confidence, as he was breaking lines at will and putting the team in positive attacking situations. He was less selfish than usual, as shown by his pass in the build up to Callum Wilson’s goal.
Four shots and seven shot creating actions shows that he did carry a threat in the attacking half too.
