Easy this football lark, or it is when the opposition are as obliging as this. Bournemouth came with a plan to frustrate us and maybe hit us on the break, er possibly. It was hard to tell to be honest as the main feature of their display was ropey defending and when they did string enough possession together to create chances, even ropier finishing.
Eriksen’s deflected strike after sixteen minutes gave us the lead, probably undeservedly as by then Fraser had had an attempt and Brooks wasted a very good chance to lift the ball over Hugo and into an empty net but failed to get a touch on a bouncing ball. At that point Bournemouth looked like they’d come to give us a game but falling behind knocked the stuffing out of them and they seemed from then on to be waiting for the least bad thing that could happen to them rather than force any issue themselves.
As they watched and stood off, Son placed a beautiful shot low past Begovic’s left hand for our second before Lucas swept home Kyle Walker-Peters’ cut-back. KWP provided the assists for all three first half goals. He was impressively composed and assured throughout and will have done much in the game to gain Pochettino’s confidence, if he needed to do any more.
The Cherries hesitant and faltering defence and wayward finishing weren’t their only problems in the first half. Firstly there was a long halt to proceedings when two players went down needing extended treatment simultaneously and then shortly before the break Steve Francis went down after being bamboozled by Son in what looked like a classic case of ‘twisted blood’. Francis was stretchered off.
The second half went pretty much the same way as the first. We looked dangerous whenever we attacked with any space and took two more of our opportunities Bournemouth found room down our flanks and botched all chances they created. Our fourth came from a fine finish from Kane after a lofted pass from Eriksen over a static defence, our fifth was a bit Keystone Kops before Son finished from close range.
We were never at our best, Poch had rung the changes and it showed but there were good performances from Sissoko, Winks, Foyth and Walker-Peters and an outstanding one from Son, we’ll miss him when he’s away in January.
Wolves next up.
COYS
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