Bournemouth capitalized on defensive lapses, leaving Newcastle to lament missed chances and fading European aspirations. A late goal sealed their fate.
Bournemouth and Andoni Iraola arrived on Tyneside in a buoyant mood after denting Arsenal’s title chances last weekend. Whilst Iraola has announced he will be leaving at the end of the season, he did not want his players to down tools. He wants to give a farewell to The Cherries, which could see them qualifying for European football.
Eddie Howe, off the back of the Palace defeat, decided to make 3 changes to the starting XI, of which 2 of them were forced due to Joelinton’s suspension after picking up his 10th yellow card of the season and Anthony Gordon’s injury. Into the side came Jacob Ramsey, Harvey Barnes, and replacing Jacob Murphy was Anthony Elanga. With no Trippier, Burn, Bruno G, or Murphy, it was Sandro Tonali who wore the captain’s armband.
The first half was fairly uneventful with neither side creating a real chance at goal. Barnes was not covering himself with glory, with no desire to run at Jimenez and losing the ball various times in the half. Just after the half-hour mark, Tavernier found the back of the net after a low cross from the byline by Rayan. Defensively, Newcastle were not strong enough and left plenty of space for Bournemouth to exploit. Evanilson nearly netted a second minutes later trying to divert Alex Scott’s ball.
Eddie Howe made a tactical change at half-time, replacing Lewis Hall with Kieran Trippier, which did raise a few eyebrows amongst the St James’ Park crowd. Lewis Hall was one of the positive performances from the 1st half. Livramento may have been the change most expected.
Whilst Hall won 66.7% of his tackles, Livramento did not win any and was lacking for both goals conceded.
Newcastle fans thought their fortunes may have changed after William Osula slotted past Petrovic to bring the Magpies level. A pass forward from Evanilson found Osula, who took control of the ball before running at goal, then slotting it past an oncoming Petrovic. The crowd were made to wait whilst a lengthy VAR check after the goal was initially ruled out for offside. The crowd cheered after referee Thomas Brammall gave the stadium announcement, “After review, Bournemouth Number 9 makes a clear pass forward. My final decision is goal.”
Newcastle fans were never going to sit comfortably given the record of conceding late goals and throwing away points. With Newcastle needing a win to rescue any hopes of European football, the game ticked on with €132.7 million worth of strikers in Nick Woltemade & Yoane Wissa remaining on the bench.
A predictable result was confirmed when Truffaut nudged Bournemouth back in front, heading the ball into the net from Tavernier’s deep delivery back across goal. It was only then that Eddie Howe decided to go to the bench and bring on one of his benched forwards. The game ebbed away with no real fight or urgency from the team, with questions growing about Howe’s long-term future.