AFC Bournemouth (Home) 30.08.2025

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Within 30 seconds of Bournemouth kicking off, Spurs had a shot on goal.  Taking a throw-in on his chest, Mo Kudus turned between two players and swept the ball left to Brennan Johnson.  He laid on on to his left for the over-lapping Pape Matar Sarr, who drove a shot hard to the near post with Petrovic blocking it and it falling kindly for a defender to hack away.  However, with four minutes gone, Bournemouth went ahead, with a ball down the left played back to Senesi, whose pass into the box ended with Evanilson shooting at goal from inside the box to the left.  As Cristian Romero threw a block in front of it, he ball spun off his leg and out of the reach of Guglielmo Vicario’s dive to find the net.

A couplke of minutes later, Evanilson found space outside the D with a bit of space, but dragged his shot a yard wide of Vicario’s right hand post and that was soon followed by the referee giving a foul throw against Pedro Porro.  I didn’t know that such a thing existed any more !  Bournemouth were finding space between the Tottenham lines and when Semenyo played the ball to the right wing for Brooks to bend a cross in with the outside of his boot, the former had made a run into the box to head it over off the top of the bar.  Spurs were finding it difficult to play the ball out or to make any progress up the field, with the Cherries pressing hard to close down the man on the ball, causing it to be turned over.  There were a couple of early bookings; Semenyo for standing in front of a free-kick and Micky van de Ven for taking Brook slate (although it saved a yellow card for Romero, who did the same as the ball ran on). 

On 20 minutes, Brooks tried to catch Vic out with a 25 yard free-kick to his right-hand side, but the keeper pushed it wide and from the corner, the Welsh winger got a free0header, but guided it over the bar.  As Tottenham looked to move the ball forward, the forwards were either closely marked, doubled up on or fouled, breaking up any rhythm they hoped to achieve.  In fouling Johnson, former Spur Adam Smith went down injured and when Tottenham got on with the game, Bournemouth weren’t happy that he didn’t get to receive treatment.  When he did, he had to be subbed.

When Semenyo played the ball to his left with a reverse pass for Tavernier in the box, he was in a similar position to where the goal came from, but Micky’s strong, sliding block was well-timed to take the ball out for a corner.  Whistle after whistle from the referee interrupted play to the dismay of the Tottenham fans, although when Semenyo took Kudus’ ankles away from him, there was nothing coming from the referee.  The game was screaming out for a Spurs player to make a run through the midfield with the ball, but the congestion prevented that happening.  That was the pattern for the rest of the first half, with Bournemouth looking the more threatening.

After the break it started in keeping with the first half.  A quick break saw Tavernier touch the ball around the corner to his left and Semenyo struck a first time shot that had Vicario needing to dive down to his left to push the ball wide of the goal.  The ball kept pining around the Spurs penalty box, with Bournemouth wanting a penalty when Senesi and Kudus both went to kick a bouncing ball and the visiting player went down holding his foot, but the ball ran loose towards goal and Vicario did well to get out at Evanilson’s feet to block his shot.  That wasn’t the end of it, as the ball ran to Brooks, whose shot came out off the face of the crossbar.  When Spurs eventually cleared it, Richarlison ran the ball away, only to be cynically brought down by Semenyo.  Already on a yellow card, it looked all day like he would be getting another, but the referee knew it would mean sending him off, so let it go with just a free-kick.  Add into that Senesi’s attempt to mis-lead the referee as there was no contact in Mohammed’s challenge, it is just another example of weak refereeing that we are seeing all too often in the Premier League.

Vic dived to push away another Brooks effort, but the game got untidy, with Bournemouth put in a number of petty fouls, which were more or less equal to that which Semenyo was booked for in the first half.  When Sarr won a tackle off Hill for a goal-kick, most people in the stadium were amazed when the officials gave a corner.  What chance do you stand ?  It became even more of a joke when Spence was booked for a foul – probably rightly – but nothing worse than Adams had just perpetrated.

Christie had just come on and put a ball into the box from the left corner of the area, with Romero getting an important touch to take it way from Evanilson coming in behind him.  The ball only ran to the far post where Tavernier was in space and could only shoot into the side-netting.  Spurs started to move the ball quicker, with Porro’s ball into Richi, who had his back to goal allowed him to lay it back for Bergvall,  Unfortunately, his shot was deflected, taking the sting out of it and it went into Petrovic’s hands.  Vic also was in action, beating out a shot from Adams, who was being deployed to irritate the Tottenham keeper at corners.

Udogie and Odobert moved the ball well down the left wing and when Destiny’s cross was blocked, it dropped in the area for Wilson, but he couldn’t keep his shot down as it ended up in the South Stand.  Bournemouth were dropping deeper and that allowed Spurs to have some possession in the Cherries half.  Cristian Romero was pushed up into a forward position, as Spurs sought an equaliser, with seven minutes added on.  A minute into that added time, Djed put in a cross from the right and Mathys Tel met it with his laces on the volley, but the ball skipped off the turf and flew a foot wide of the keeper’s right-hand post.    

Some of the pressure was relieved on the Bournemouth defence when Bergvall won a tackle on Christie and had a foul given against him, even though he won the ball and the opponent went down looking for the contact.  Kudus was fouled and stayed down, but the ref failed to give anything, but when Spence laid a hand on Truffert’s back, he went down easily and got a free-kick.  Richarlison was then bowled over but told to get up by the ref and it took Udogie getting clothes-lined by Hill to get a free-kick and a booking.  From the free-kick, Bentancur glanced a header wide and that was it.

It was a disappointing performance in which we never got going, but that was down to Bournemouth’s closing down of the space and the man on the ball.  Towards the end they tired, but got numbers back behind the ball, but Tottenham didn’t look as though they could score with the visitors defence looking strong in clearing most of the balls into their box.  Bournemouth were very slick and lively in attack, with Semenyo giving Porro a very tough match.

Not everything that Bournemouth did was pretty, as their fouls and time-wasting disrupted the match with the referee allowing a lot of that to go unpunished.  The inconsistency of the officiating is so frustrating and a number of club’s fans complain about it.  I know it’s a difficult job, but there is not excuse for not dealing with the same type of incident in different ways.  Semenyo deserved a second yellow for a foul on Richarlison as he brought the ball forward.  He knew exactly what he was doing and the lack of football intelligence inherent in referees meant that the man in charge (sic) failed to understand exactly what happened.  Even though it was in the Tottenham half, it was calculated to prevent a break and having seen the bookings our players got, it was well worth the chants of “You’re not fit to referee”.

The international break means no football for a fortnight and it will be interesting to see what difference Xavi Simons makes when football starts up again … or if Spurs add any more signings in the tail-end of the transfer window.

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