Bournemouth 1 – 3 Stoke City

Review by Phil Sawyer (Twitter: @sawyer_phil)

Stoke City beat Bournemouth on an entertaining, if disappointing, Saturday afternoon at Dean Court. The Cherries first half display did little to warm the home fans on a freezing afternoon on the South Coast, and despite a decent second half performance, the visitors were deserving of the win.

Bournemouth started the game comfortably, denying Stoke a sniff of the ball for almost the first 10 minutes. It was unfortunate for Eddie Howe’s team that when they finally did cede possession, the ball fell kindly to £18 million man Giannelli Imbula, who promptly lashed it into the bottom corner from long range. The Potters’ record signing looked assured from start to finish in what was a towering display in central midfield and the French national looks an excellent addition to a side now glittering with expensive foreign talent.

After conceding the goal, Bournemouth fell into an uncharacteristically poor period of play. The passing became nervous, and this feeling spread to the home crowd. The sense of unease around the ground continued to half time and many in the stands could, justifiably, feel they were watching Bournemouth’s worst home performance of the season. As with the Arsenal game a week previous, the Cherries were dominating possession statistics without really worrying the opposition goalkeeper.

This negative feeling only increased when Walters, capitalising on some hesitant defending by Steve Cook, broke down the Bournemouth left early in the second half. He squared for Afellay to sweep home a second and the home side were looking worryingly out of ideas. When Joselu finished with an accurate header to make the score 0-3, the game really did look finished. Whilst Stoke were physical all over the pitch and the foul count was ever ticking, the midlands team were undeniably very adept technically, particularly on the counter attack, and it looked like becoming a long afternoon for Eddie Howe and his side.

The brilliant young manager did launch attacking options, in the shape of the lively Josh King and the energetic Matt Ritchie from the bench, and for a while at least, these changes looked like they might spark an unlikely comeback. Ritchie added yet another superb goal to his catalogue, striking the ball sweetly with his left, and his performance will have surely earned him a recall into the starting XI. Should one of the chances that flashed across the six yard box in the following minutes gone in, we may have been in for a grandstand finish. Bournemouth continued to pour forward and the pace and trickery of King was worrying Stoke, but the Potters held firm.

A promising cameo from fans’ favourite Juan Iturbe was one of few reasons for optimism from an average showing by the men in red and black who could not play their way back into the game late on. Big improvements will be required from the Cherries if they are to take anything from Watford when they visit Hertfordshire in the next league fixture in two weeks time.