AFC Bournemouth and Cherries head coach Andoni Iraola headed into the fixture with Brighton & Hove Albion at Dean Court on Sunday, knowing that a little bit of history was on the line.
The Cherries were on 45 points going into the game, just one point shy of their previous record points total in the top flight of English football, set during the 2016/17 campaign under former manager Eddie Howe. Therefore, a draw would have been enough to equal that points total, whilst a win would surpass it and help the chase for a top-half finish.
AFC Bournemouth appeared to revel in the freedom of safety and yet still have something to strive for as they brushed aside Brighton & Hove Albion with a comfortable 3-0 victory. Goals from Marcos Senesi, Enes Unal and Justin Kluivert, sending the visitors back home along the coast with nothing to show for.
After the game, Iraola told Sky Sports…
“We played really well. It’s difficult to play against Brighton, they have a lot of the ball and you have to keep your composure and wait for your chances. It was a complete game.”
“…I’m very happy with the 48 points and we have to continue pushing. There are even more difficult games ahead, but we want as many points as we can, we want to finish the season strongly.
“The worst news of the afternoon has probably been Antoine’s [Semenyo] injury at the end. Everything was going very good and I hope it’s not too bad. It was an ugly one, but until we do an MRI, we will not know [how bad it is].”
Man of the match against BrightonO. Dango
Unal
Semenyo
Solanke
Cook
Kluivert
Senesi
Smith
Scott
Kelly
Travers
Someone else
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billythekid
Brilliant team performance this afternoon and there were a number who could be MOM today, but for me, I will give it to Travers who since coming in at Wolves kept his second clean sheet today.
Kluivert gets better with each game, what pace he has when he has the ball and another great finish for our third goal.
Unal good headed goal from a good cross from Ouattara.
Senesi there again with a header to put us in the lead.
The icing on the cake was breaking the club record for the most points in a season which was 46 and now we have 48 points and still three games to go.
Very unfortunate for Semenyo and our team with that injury time injury which it seems has finished his season.
Just mentioned on Solent he is leaving on crutches.
The gaffer hails a complete performance to secure a landmark win 👏 pic.twitter.com/2k0WnvlzXh
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) April 28, 2024
TrevorMorganFanClub
Much credit to Dango for the perfect cross for the 2nd, having been sent a bit wider than necessary he had to hurry it. Perfect header back across into the far corner too.
After possibly losing Semenyo for some time not quite a day on a par with the 5-0 at there’s, but still very enjoyable.
WHAT. A. TEAM. 😍
48 points, our NEW @premierleague record points tally 😤 pic.twitter.com/FoJqRxlUei
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) April 28, 2024
New Forest Cherry
Really couldn’t believe how ineffective Brighton were playing that awful tippy tappy football even when 2 down with 10 mins to go
500 completed passes in their own penalty box; so what?!
Their manager is a pound shop Pep.
Perfect weekend doesn’t exit.. 😉
El finde perfecto no existe.. 🍒🔥 pic.twitter.com/g4TqHKVLOY
— Marcos Senesi (@senesimarcos) April 28, 2024
table
Excellent team performance, about the only two blemishes are Semenyo—YO’s injury. At the moment I think the best-case scenario will be for him being fit for the start of next season.
The other, we didn’t get the minimum 5 goals we deserved. Although it’s a thing of beauty seeing “Poundshop Tommy Elphick” sat on his ass as Kulivert scores the third : )
Very enjoyable pre-match amble around the ground, missed out on the Churros but partook of the Hog roast, delicious : )
Much better than the burgery or hot dogging stuff usually on offer at other grounds : )
I wouldn’t say Brighton were poor because they didn’t have much choice the way we played. We played brilliantly as a team, they couldn’t live with us. Andoni’s got them playing so well and we converted 3 of our chances. Even at 1-0 I thought we were much more likely to score than them. Solanke, Kluivert, Unal, and Semenyo all played in at least 2 positions. An excellent cross from Dango for the second goal
: )
If De Zerbi’s a tactical genius, what does that make Andoni : )
I’m not sure how popular the safe standing is for those in the back 10 rows of the North Stand but once the singing starts it sounds louder. Also heard the South Stand today : )
Only one more home game : (
Win that and we crash 50 points ( in the unlikely event we don’t win next week). Also the traditional “pitchie” ; )
We've now matched our best-ever unbeaten run at home in the @premierleague.
Six in a row without defeat at Vitality Stadium 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CzDPTPK6Qj
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) April 28, 2024
Allen
We were brilliant today – the referee was a joke and the lino – Brighton were pathetic, diving all the time, it was embarrassing, they are better than that?
Does anyone know why the ref and lino decided against giving us the corner that Semenyo earned?
I’ve heard we should have had 4 penalties today, VAR didn’t even look at one incident. They were almost going for full Nelsons on our players when defending corners, Dunk’s handball, Semenyo taken clean out and there was a big shout or 2 in the first half, they did show the replay on one of the appeals in the ground and that looked like a decent challenge on Dom, no doubt MOTD will show that and not the others.
Luckily for us, we were so superior to them that the shocking refereeing had very little impact.
Every player was excellent. Christie was on fire when he came on. Unal got better as the game went on. Dango more than stepped up, a very under rated player – I think moving him to left-back is another master stroke like moving Christie into the double pivot. Kluivert was a nuisance again, all over them.
Brilliant performance. Gutted for Semenyo. hopefully, it’s not as bad as feared. – To join the conversation, click here.
