Why was there no performance at Cardiff?

After a win against Chelsea, one might have thought that it would be a little problem to take on Cardiff City who are sitting in the bottom three. But this league slaps you in the face when you think you have it cracked and you have to be mentally right for every minute of the game. Bournemouth were far from prepared for this one by what we saw at the start of each half.

Are Bournemouth half the team they are when they have Brooks in the side?

We can argue that the talisman of David Brooks was injured and Bournemouth looked stifled in attack, but this was a match against a bottom three side that had only won three matches all season. It was a chance for Dominic Solanke to make a great start to his Bournemouth career and the partnership of Gosling and Surman that had looked so secure against Chelsea, was slow and unable to keep up with Cardiff's midfield.

The team needs to be able to play consistently well to do well in the Premier League, and they have to be able to do it when a few of their star names are absent. But Bournemouth find it hard to keep a run going when they have just come off a big win. Howe may wonder whether the players didn't find it easy to recover from the midweek game in time for the Cardiff match. Sometimes you want games to come quickly, but it was a big effort against Chelsea and mentally it was a difficult day at Cardiff with the fantastic tribute for Sala.

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Bournemouth will draw a line under that performance and will have to look back to what they did right against Chelsea. There are some creative players that Howe has to get more from such as Stanislas and Ibe if Bournemouth are to get their game back and without Wilson AFCB have to get King into enough shooting positions to give them a chance in games.