Bournemouth go third thanks to Wilson show
Southampton fans may still regard Tuesday’s match against Portsmouth as the authentic south-coast derby but the inconvenient truth is that it is now Bournemouth who have the most convincing claim to local bragging rights.
A 3-1 win not only takes Eddie Howe’s team up to third in the Premier League ahead of the other weekend matches, it is also the first time in their history that they have won at Southampton. This was their 16th attempt, spanning 66 years both at the Dell and St Mary’s.
Add in two consecutive Premier League finishes above Southampton and there could be no serious argument just now at the ecstatic claim from Bournemouth supporters that “the south coast is ours”.
They also serenaded Howe with all the vigour of one of their survival or promotion seasons, even if the Bournemouth manager himself needed only 25 minutes to declare that his obvious enjoyment for the moment had already switched to “analysis” for the fixture on Wednesday against Burton Albion.
“It was a nice feeling for the supporters,” he said. “You could feel the emotion. To win here in the Premier League would have seemed impossible not so long ago.”
Although Ryan Fraser was again among the substitutes, Bournemouth started with an aggressive 4-4-2 formation that allowed Joshua King and Harry Wilson to break forward incisively from wide in support of two strikers.
Southampton were actually dominant in possession but lacked a comparative presence in attack and Bournemouth needed only a basic set-piece to take the lead. Diego Rico simply floated in a corner from which Nathan Ake exploited a lapse in concentration by Oriel Romeu to power forward into space and beat Kevin Danso to the header.
Danso was being asked to play in an unfamiliar right-back position and his inexperience in the role was exploited when Dominic Solanke released Josh King. The Bournemouth winger finished precisely, but video assistant referee Graham Scott correctly ruled that the winger was just offside.
Howe later said that he was disappointed from what he called the “beauty” perspective to see such a sweeping move chalked off. It sent alarm bells ringing on the Southampton dugout. Manager Ralph Hassenhuttl was soon conducting a hasty rearrangement of the system that meant moving Danso inside Jan Bednarek as part of a switch to 3-5-2. It made little difference.
King released Philip Billing and, with Southampton again caught flat-footed in defence, Harry Wilson doubled Bournemouth’s lead.
It was Wilson’s third goal in only five Premier League appearances. Equally impressive was the way Bournemouth had collectively reacted to the VAR set-back – and Howe later revealed that his players have been proactively prepared this season to react positively to what has become an inevitable part of football.
Hassenhuttl was decisive at halftime. Danso was brought off, Ryan Bertrand came on at left-back and Cedric Soares reverted to his usual right-sided position. Southampton suddenly looked more balanced and played with added intensity.
Che Adams made a direct run into Bournemouth’s penalty area, prompting Steve Cook to step out clumsily upended the £15 million summer signing. Adams has not yet scored since arriving from Birmingham but Ward-prowse converted the penalty with precision and power to hand his team a lifeline. It looked likely to prove shortlived when Cedric then delivered an equally rash penalty-area challenge on King. VAR was consulted and the decision again went in favour of Southampton.
They briefly also gathered some momentum but Sofiane Boufal had a shot well saved by Aaron Ramsdale and Jack Stacey made an excellent block to deny Nathan Redmond. A famous night for Bournemouth was then completed when Callum Wilson pounced on a breakdown in communication between Bednarek and Angus Gunn to score his team’s third in added time. “A gift,” said Wilson. It was, but the recipients had already made their own luck en route to yet another landmark in Howe’s tenure. Southampton