Howe urges his players to avenge VAR ‘injustice’ in relegation fight

Eddie Howe is probably one of the more even-tempered Premier League managers, so for him to talk of a “feeling of injustice” after Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Burnley gives some idea about how he and his players had reacted to the latest video assistant referee controversy.

To have goals from Josh King and Harry Wilson disallowed in each half, and for Wilson’s strike to be chalked off in favour of a Burnley penalty, was too much to take for Bournemouth as they slumped to defeat.

But it was the manner of the calls that really stoked Howe’s ire. Philip Billing diverted the ball on to King for that first “goal” with his upperarm/shoulder, and pre-var nobody would have complained too much if it had stood.

Then with that still nagging away, the double jeopardy of seeing a second-half equaliser ruled out and the action taken back to the other end to penalise Adam Smith for a handball that on-field referee Mike Dean had turned down broke the camel’s back.

As it is, there is nothing that Bournemouth can do about that but use it as motivation for what is to come, starting at home to Chelsea on Saturday.

“The players were really angry

Bournemouth were on the wrong end of two critical VAR decisions. Josh King had a first-half goal ruled out because Philip Billing was penalised for a handball, even though it afterwards without a doubt,” said Howe. “There is that feeling of injustice against us.

“We can’t do anything about it now, but we can use it to train well and prepare for our next match.

“You have to respond and create that siege mentality that things are perceived to be going against us and use that to create a stronger bond between us and the outside.

“We have to build on the team spirit that we already have and try to get results.”

This was an eighth defeat in nine away games for Bournemouth as goals from Matej Vydra, a Jay Rodriguez penalty and Dwight Mcneil made it 13 points out of the last 15 for Burnley.