Cherries Thumped at White Hart Lane

Bournemouth travelled to White Hart Lane for the third and final instalment of their trilogy from hell which had gleaned one point so far v Liverpool,and had seen a good performance with no reward v Chelsea.
With Cherries fans having to get up early doors for the trek to North London,Eddie Howe made one change to the side that did well against Chelsea,Junior Stanislas coming back in after injury.

The game started with Spurs soon getting into the groove,showing the form that had seen them win 14 consecutive games at home in all competitions.
To be fair to Bournemouth,we coped quite well in the early exchanges,but with Spurs looking so dangerous in and around the box,you thought it was only a matter of time before we conceded.
After an offside effort from Kane had been beaten out by Boruc,an innocuous looking attack down the left resulted in Francis letting the ball out for what he thought was a goal kick,Ref Michael Oliver had other ideas and typically awarded a corner.
Cherries frailty at set pieces was again exposed as the corner was swung in by specialist Eriksen,a static defence looking on as one player failed to connect before an unmarked DEMBELE swept the ball home.
With Spurs now in the ascendancy,Cherries looked very shaky,and with Jack Wilshere being roundly booed on every touch,he played a sloppy ball that Eriksen gleefully intercepted before the impressive SON waltzed through unchallenged to dink the ball past Boruc into the corner.
Further efforts were saved by Boruc from Eriksen and and Kane before the ref signalled half time to every Cherries fans relief.

HT Spurs 2 AFCB 0

As the teams came out for the second half,I still felt that after how well we had played at Liverpool,if we scored first we could still get something but we would have to play a lot better.
As is often the case though,we have a bad habit of conceding a sloppy goal in the first ten minutes of the second half,the un impressive Francis being way too easily bullied in his own area by KANE who must love playing against us as he fired home his sixth goal against us in four Premier League games.

By now Cherries really were chasing shadows,with poor performances all over the pitch,Artur Boruc having a busy afternoon keeping the score down on his own as wave after wave of Spurs attacks came his way.
Spurs even tried to help us by one by one taking off Alli,Kane and Erikksen,with the awful Wilshere being replaced by Lewis Cook,Fraser replacing Stanislas,and Mousset replacing Afobe.

It took until the 70th minute for Bournemouth to even have a shot on goal,with Daniels effort easily saved by Lloris.

There was still time for Spurs to add a fourth,Spurs donkey JANSSEN scoring his first goal from open play after yet another Spurs attack was poorly defended.

FT Spurs 4 AFCB 0

So,we aren’t the first team to be thumped by Spurs at the Lane,and we won’t be the last,but for Eddie Howe,it was the manner of this defeat that was so disappointing.
The effort and fight shown v Liverpool and Chelsea was missing right through the team,with some of our most talented players very unimpressive.
The only positive for me was Artur Boruc in goal and a good cameo from Lewis Cook after a long lay off.
So here are the ratings,they are pretty damning but for me the performance let the fans down big time.

BORUC 10 Kept the score down from at least that

SMITH 5 Outfought,caught in posession,didn’t get forward

COOK 7 Difficult afternoon with so much dross around him

FRANCIS 3 Can’t hack it versus the top teams,not a Captain

DANIELS 5 For Charlie read Smith.

STANISLAS 6 Never got into it really

PUGH 5 Not quick enough to play against the best full backs

ARTER 5 Looked one pace slower,couldn’t get near Spurs midfield,caught in posession,passing poor

WILSHERE 2 Pathetic fancy Dan performance,constantly gave ball away trying Hollywood passes,injured when doing a petulant tackle after losing the ball yet again

AFOBE 2 Looked off the pace,out muscled,slow,but to be fair,no service,I expect more in the next few games

KING 6 Usual effort but he can’t do it on his own.

Subs

Cook 7 Didn’t look out of place,some quality interceptions and passing,Wilsheres natural replacement.

Fraser 6 Tried hard but too late in the game to make an impression

Mousset 6 As above ,he’ll push hard next season

MOM Boruc by a country mile,stopped it being our record defeat.

So much to ponder for Howe,it’s these games that really show our deficiencies and where we need to improve.
Ok it didn’t help that Surman and Gosling were injured so maybe we couldn’t set up as a five man midfield with the personnel he would want.
Maybe a game like this could have been a game to try Tyrone Mings as an out and out defensive midfielder shielding the back four,he certainly has the passing ability and likes a physical battle?

But tactics aside,Howe was badly let down by some players today,they are well looked after with all the trappings of Premier League footballers,if I was him I would have been disgusted with the lack of effort.

But onwards and upwards,we have 5 games,all against winnable opposition,I think 2 wins or one win and two draws should see us safe,but for me it’s been a poor season,and next season is an important crossroads in Howe’s Premier League career.

UTCIAD

Report by bigfatolly