Big-money Afobe opens his account as old and new come through for Howe to punish Norwich
TWO for the old, one for the new and a record Premier League win for Bournemouth. Not a bad day’s work for Eddie Howe and his gang of cheap and expensive misfits.
Not that Norwich were up to much — they were weak in defence, ineffective in attack and occasionally reliant on the generosity of referee Robert Madley, who got a number of big calls wrong. As Alex Neil put it: ‘It really wasn’t a good afternoon for us.’ But detract nothing from the side that played alongside them in the Championship and dished out a battering here in the Premier League.
Bournemouth were excellent, with pass masters in the middle, hounds at the back and a £12million battering ram called Benik Afobe up front.
This team does the sleek stuff wonderfully well but in Afobe they have front-line muscle, a striker brought in for a fortune from Wolves and capable of rolling over big men like Sebastien Bassong. But he is also a former Arsenal prospect with a quality touch.
He got his first goal for the club here with a lovely volley, adding to the earlier strikes from Dan Gosling and Charlie Daniels. In that scoresheet is the tale of this Bournemouth side — two goals from players who cost precious little and played a part in the club’s rise; one from their record signing. Together, it is quite a mix.
Results have not gone their way lately, with no wins in their previous four. But they are spending like a Premier League club in this transfer window and are clearly capable of playing like one.
Howe said: ‘When you join a new club you want to make a good impression and Benik has done that. He’s got the monkey off his back.
‘It’s important that we don’t go too long without winning in this league. We can’t waste games — when you play teams around you it is important. It was a big day for the club.’
For Neil, the table is suddenly taking on a
formidable appearance. Their form isn’t especially bad, but backto-back defeats and a nasty run of fixtures leaves their situation precarious. This performance highlighted the need for new signings.
They are looking for a defender and a striker — deals for Wolfsburg centre-back Timm Klose and Everton forward Steven Naismith ought to be completed early in the week. On this evidence, the need for one or both is reasonably high. Neil said: ‘I didn’t think we competed well enough and if you don’t do that you’re going to find it incredibly difficult to win any game. We had too many under par.
‘What we’re not going to do is respond on the back of one result and sign lots of players.
‘Obviously there’s been a lot of talk about transfers. [The Naismith deal] has been nearly there for two weeks now.’
The visitors’ attacking shortcomings were clear to see, with Norwich waiting 32 minutes to land a shot on goal and not coming especially close until Cameron Jerome lobbed wide in the second half.
And defensively a side that is yet to keep a clean sheet away from home was badly exposed.
Even without £7m signing Lewis Grabban in the Bournemouth side — Howe said he was too ill to face the club he left this month — the hosts found it far too easy to get to the Norwich goal.
Gosling headed the opener after 10 minutes following slack marking from Robbie Brady and more goals might have followed if referee Madley had been on his game. At the very least, Bournemouth should have had a first-half penalty and goalkeeper Declan Rudd should have been red carded for a hack at Afobe.
In any case, Daniels scored a second-half penalty and Afobe volleyed the third with 15 minutes to play. He is up and running, while Norwich are crawling in the wrong direction. BOURNEMOUTH (4-5-1): Boruc 6; Smith 6.5, Francis 7, Cook 7, Daniels 7.5; Stanislas 6.5, Gosling 7 (Kermorgant 90), Surman 6.5, Arter 7 (O’Kane 80), Pugh 7; Afobe 7 (Murray 84). Subs (not used): Iturbe, MacDonald, Federici, Distin. Booked: Artur. NORWICH (4-4-1-1): Rudd 5; Martin 5, Bennett 5, Bassong 5.5, Brady 5; Odjidja-Ofoe 5 (Redmond 56, 6), Tettey 6, Howson 6, Jarvis 6 (Jerome 56, 6); Hoolahan 5.5 (Dorrans 69); Mbokani 5.5. Subs (not used): Ruddy, Wisdom, Mulumbu, Olsson. Booked: Rudd REFEREE: R Madley 4.