Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle: Sluggish Toon saved by VAR on the South Coast
An out-of-sorts Toon Army ground out a point against the Cherries this afternoon, as Anthony Gordon's second-half equaliser came to Eddie Howe's rescue before the home side were denied by VAR deep into stoppage time.
I'd imagine fan reaction to this one will be largely disappointed with the overall performance. If we are to achieve our desired goals this season, improvement will be needed, and quickly too. It's a steady start with four point from a possible six, but we have a big week ahead - new signings needed, Nottingham Forest to come on Wednesday and Spurs next up in the league at St James’ next weekend.
If Newcastle had won today, it would’ve been the first time since 1997/98 that we had won out two opening games of a Premier League season, but we’ll just have to settle with still being unbeaten instead as some VAR drama at the death helped us avoid what looked at one stage like a dismal defeat.
Eddie Howe made two changes, bringing in Emil Krafth and Lloyd Kelly for Fabian Schar and Lewis Hall. We started poorly last weekend, but in the opening 20 minutes here we looked the better of the two sides as we controlled possession, won our duels and created a couple of openings.
However, the first real chance went Bournemouth’s way, Evanilson’s well struck effort from the left side of the six-yard box drew a save out of Nick Pope with his legs. United then went straight down the other end, and Isak played an excellent ball across the box which Gordon was too slow to react to.
Semenyo then hit the crossbar with a fizzing, dipping effort before Bournemouth took the lead. In the 37thminute Joelinton was robbed of possession deep in his own half, allowing Semenyo to square the ball for Tavernier to tap in from a yard out. Perhaps highlighting a £65million hole in our backline?
The second half of the first half was incredibly poor from a Black and White perspective with passes going astray, poor application of the press, slack running and bad body language clearly on display.
The opening salvos of the second half continued in the same vein, resulting in another Semenyo effort in the 55th minute which he blazed over the bar. Eddie Howe changed things up bringing on Trippier and Barnes for Livramento and Murphy to try and shake the malaise out of United. Yet it was only after Lewis Hall and Joe Willock entered the pitch in the 70th minute that things started to improve.
The final fifteen minutes, plus eight minutes of added time, were a roller-coaster of emotions. First Anthony Gordon bagged an equaliser at the back post in the 77th minute from a delightfully dinked in cross from Harvey Barnes. Dan Burn then forced a big save out of Neto in the 80th minute with a looping header from another deep cross.
Newcastle passed out from the back poorly and some more sloppy play almost saw Bournemouth grab a late winner. Semenyo, who terrorised our defence all afternoon, smashed in a shot from the right side of the 18-yard box, forcing Pope into a big save. From the resulting corner Outtara thought he’d scored the winner with his head – but crucially VAR disagreed. Handball was given and the goal was ruled out.
Eddie Howe has never beaten his former club Bournemouth in the Premier League in five attempts and I’m happy to admit I was nervous going into this game.
Bournemouth always promised to be a tricky first away encounter. They have built a very solid platform on their return to England’s topflight, with smart business in the transfer market and the appointment of a tactically astute manager. So, it was great to see United fight to get a point. Just how merited it was is, however, up for debate.
Despite the result today (Forest game on Wednesday night in the cup excluded) all focus must now shift to adding real first team quality to the squad. All summer the new structure installed above Eddie Howe has been charged with bringing in much needed reinforcements, and so far, they have struggled to deliver.
The squad remains largely unchanged from two seasons ago and whilst it retains the excellent combative, high pressing, defensive qualities of 2022/23 and the improved goalscoring output of 2023/24, it continues to lack ‘top six’ quality in certain, well-known positions.
It is also bloated by a failure to cut the deadwood, as hangers-on, has-beens, and not-good-enough’s on Premier League wages continue to eat in any PSR calculations.
After a long summer of almost ceaseless transfer chat the time has come for that to end. The time has come for Newcastle United to act.
Howay the Lads.
