AFC Bournemouth traveled to the midlands to face Aston Villa on Saturday, the hosts were fresh off of another UEFA Champions League night during the week, a competition that sees them top of the league thanks to the new format tournament.
The Cherries came into the game after arguably their best-ever result in the top flight of English football with a home win over Arsenal, however, AFC Bournemouth were not able to name an unchanged side with goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga missing through injury.
Evanilson who had impressed in recent weeks also dropped to the bench in favour of Enes Unal, whilst Alex Scott has undergone a procedure on his knee and also missed out.
Whilst on the pitch the game was dominated by Aston Villa, off of it, it was dominated by VAR.
Aston Villa had a goal disallowed for a factual decision, that being the whole ball had gone out of play during the build-up, VAR then failed to intervene when the Cherries had two legitimate shouts for two different penalties, the first for a foul on Antoine Semenyo, which saw the attacker wrongfully booked for diving and then for a handball.
However, AFC Bournemouth still managed to clinch a point without the help from the officials with Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson once again linking up from a set-piece.
After the game, AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports…
“I am that happy we scored a goal in the last moments to recover a point in a difficult place, a difficult game. I think we did not play well, they played better than us. We played the game they wanted us to play, but we competed very well.”
“The substitutes gave us another energy and we finished well in the last 15 or 20 minutes.”
“Emi (Emiliano Martinez – Aston Villa’s goalkeeper) was claiming everything, every aerial duel, so we focused more on the first post to have more of a chance. Evanilson made the most it because it was not an easy header.”
Man of the match against VillaTravers
Senesi
Evanilson
Kerkez
Cook
Tavernier
Zabarnyi
O. Dango
Christie
Someone else
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"They were better than us but we competed well" 🗣️
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola says he's "happy" with late draw at Aston Villa and praises goalkeeper Mark Travers for his performance 🍒 pic.twitter.com/IPlmH519w6
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 26, 2024
fritter
4 points from the last 2 games is brilliant. The resilience and determination in this team is quite something.
This is the first time I’ve eagerly looked forward to City. We’ll lose, probably, but we’ll give them a game.
NWCherries98
Deserved a draw, Villa were a bit better than us but felt we were due a goal. After a couple of nice VAR moments we’re back to being scandalous. How can you disallow Dango’s goal and then not give a penalty for more of a handball?? Lunacy.
#AVLBOU – 79’
The referee’s call of no penalty for simulation by Semenyo was checked and confirmed by the VAR.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) October 26, 2024
#AVLBOU – 85’
The referee’s call of no penalty for the potential handball by Bailey was checked and confirmed by the VAR – deeming that his arm was in a justifiable position.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) October 26, 2024
darwinsdummy
Agree with most of the comments on the game (Travers planted his flag deep today, Senesi/Zabarnyi monumental, Kerkez finally consistent and deserving to be named alongside Senesi/Zabarnyi, midfield and subs all good), but I’ll put in one contrarian point:
Give Araujo time. No, he hasn’t been particularly good the last two games, but give him time.
Remember where we were at this point last season? Lost or drew pretty much every game. It took a while for the players to fully understand Iraola’s approach and put it into action properly. And that was for a team of players who mostly had already been in the premier league and had a chance to adapt to it.
A most apt comparison would be to look at Kerkez throughout all of last season, a young fullback coming in new to the PL and Iraola. While he had some bright moments, at times he also felt like a liability (I recall some debates here about Dango taking the starting LB role after a few good appearances). This season he’s finally seeming more consistent and doesn’t feel like a liability. Even though today Dango did take over his role again, Kerkez had seemed to tweak something a few minutes earlier, so I don’t think it was tactical but just precautionary.
Overall, it took most of a season for Kerkez to finally get fully adapted to Iraola and the PL. Araujo is now going through the same process. Maybe he won’t be successful long-term, but I think our experiences with Iraola and Kerkez mean we should have a bit more patience with him. Iraola has started him the last two games, after all, so he clearly has some intention in his mind of how Araujo might be able to work for us. Even though Araujo hasn’t yet clicked with the team, Iraola has definitely earned my trust and I’ll give him and Araujo more time to get it figured out.
Neil Dawson
If that handball wasn’t deliberate and Dango’s against Newcastle was deliberate then I’ve severely underrated him. Any man able to score so freely with planned movements of his shoulder/arm juncture should be commanding a transfer fee over 100m
It’s a farce. I don’t think, and never have thought, they are biased. They are just incompetent. The simplest thing in the world is to get everyone in a room all looking at this in a consistent manner. It’s not even like they are sat on their own in Stockley park.
It’s ridiculous.
That said, a draw is a fair result and not convinced had we scored that pen we’d have gone on and won. They also would have thrown the sink at us, which they didn’t have time to do after Eva’s goal. – To join the conversation, click here.
