It would have been easy, understandable even, for Bournemouth fans to feel down and worried. Their revered head coach, Andoni Iraola, had left in the summer and his replacement, Marco Rose, had not got off to a great start. Three defeats and three draws was all they had to show from their first six league matches, and whispers about Rose’s future had begun in the media.
But Bournemouth fans know it can take a while for new ideas and methods to yield positive results. Iraola didn’t win any of his first nine Premier League games in charge of the club and he ended up having a remarkable impact. Still, the outlook wasn’t great after Bournemouth were hammered 5-1 by Chelsea.
But Rose maintained his level-headedness. He had been adamant until that point that Bournemouth’s performances had been better than results suggested. But performance-wise, I see a lot of good things,” he said.
Rose was much less understanding after the hammering at Stamford Bridge, but again there were still reasons to think the result was harsh. Chelsea’s five goals came from only 1.1 expected goals (xG). The standard of their finishing was incredibly high at times, with Jordan Henderson scoring twice from outside the box (one a free-kick) and João Pedro rifling emphatically into the roof of the net from a Pedro Neto cut-back.
And Morgan Rogers’ effort was helped by a deflection. Bournemouth created opportunities, with a greater xG total (1.38) than their hosts, but ended up on the end of a hiding. The one-sided result was something of a novelty, but the overriding sense that Bournemouth had been unlucky was familiar.
Not much had gone their way in the five matches before that. In their defeat at Manchester City on the opening weekend, Bournemouth led 1-0 until the 84th minute, before losing 2-1. In their second match of the season, they were denied by a 90th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Everton.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
