Bournemouth can't afford late turn ups in games

In the first few minutes against Arsenal, I was confident that Bournemouth were going to get stuck right in. There was some good chasing and the high press was working. But then Arsenal got hold of the ball and Bournemouth went missing for a good half an hour.

The Cherries need ti untie their legs for the start of their next game.

I am not sure why this sort of thing happens to professional footballers. The players set out with a game plan and you'd hope they would stick to it near enough. But the tempo that Arsenal played at gave the Cherries problems. They soon managed to get more time to spread play and really stretch AFCB on the wings. It was quite annoying to watch because once Arsenal had found that the pace of Saka was hurting Bournemouth they kept finding him with neither Adam Smith or Simon Francis really getting across to the winger and Harry Wilson too high up the pitch.

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Eddie Howe might well have noticed the problem but nothing was really sorted out until half-time. It was then that there seemed to be a better match up and Bournemouth started to play their football in short spells. You wonder how much the players need to read the situation when they can see the team is getting pulled about all over the place.

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There is no doubt that Howe was confused about the way the team had fallen back in the first half. The early goal was surely part of the problem, but at 0-2 down, when the game could have got out of hand, Bournemouth started to dig in. I think that is encouraging for the games coming up. The team doesn't feel that a scoreline like 0-2 is unrecoverable and had Simpson got his header on target, Bournemouth could have got at least a draw even without Lewis Cook's late chance.

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I do expect AFCB to come out of the traps better though against Aston Villa. The Cherries need to put them on the back foot.

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