AFC Bournemouth as a club has been in existence for 125 years. A majority of that time has been spent in the lower divisions of English football. In the 2014-15 football season, under Eddie Howe, the club won the EFL Championship for the first time after finishing the previous season in 10th place and earned a promotion to the English Premier League for the first time in their history.
Under Eddie Howe, the Cherries spent the next five years in the Premier League battling for survival before finally succumbing to relegation in 2020 with an 18th placed finish. After getting relegated, Eddie Howe resigned as manager of the club and was replaced by Jason Tindall until February 3rd.
Bournemouth’s Record In The Premier League
In the 2015-16 Premier League season, Eddie Howe led the Cherries to a 16th-placed finish, amassing 42 points along the way from 11 wins and nine draws.
Bournemouth’s second season was a revelation. In addition to securing their highest-ever points total in a single Premier League season with 46 points, the club finished 9th on the Premier League table with the club’s highest goal scorer, Joshua King, scoring 16 goals and finishing as the joint eight-highest goal scorer of the season.
The next two seasons saw them finish 12th and 14th respectively, amassing 44 and 45 points in those two seasons. In 2020, the club was relegated with 34 points not enough to secure survival.
Scott Parker took over as manager of the Cherries while they were in the Championship and led them back to the Premier League in 2022 after finishing second in the Championship.
The Premier League wasn’t so kind to Scott Parker though. After winning his first game against Aston Villa at the start of the season, his next three games were tough ties: away to Manchester City, at home to Arsenal, and away to Liverpool. The Cherries lost all three and conceded 16 goals without reply. Scott Parker was then dismissed and replaced by Gary O’Neill who went on to lead the club to a 15th-placed finish with 39 points.
The Record-Breaking Season
Gary O’Neill was replaced by Andoni Iraola in the summer of 2023. Bournemouth then went on to spend big to buy players. They spent £9.5 million on Justin Kluivert, £20 million on Hamed Traorè, £25 million on Alex Scott, £23 million on Tyler Adams, and £20 million on Luis Sinisterra.
Iraola has so far led the Cherries to equal the club’s highest number of wins in a single Premier League season with 13 wins, scoring four goals less than their best tally with three games left to play. The club’s highest goal scorer in the Premier League, Dominic Solanke, has also scored 18 goals, two more than Joshua King managed in 2017, and is ranked as the fifth-highest goal scorer in the league.
On the 28th of April, on the back of a 45 points tally in 34 games played, the Cherries hosted injury-ravaged Brighton at the Vitality Stadium. There, Marcos Senesi, Enes Unal, and Justin Kluivert scored to give the club a resounding 3-0 record-breaking victory. The club has now won 48 points, the most it has ever won in the English Top Division in its history.
Bournemouth 3-0 Brighton
In a game largely dominated by Brighton with 70% of the possession, Bournemouth proved the more determined and clinical side. They had 15 shots to Brighton’s 13, with six of them on target. Brighton only managed one shot on target in the entire game.
Marcos Senesi’s headed goal came like a poacher’s goal in the six-yard box from a corner in the 13th minute. Before Enes Unal’s 52nd-minute header to double the lead, he had earlier on scuffed a chance to do so in the first half.
The Cherries then put the nail in Brighton’s coffin when Alex Christie released Justin Kluivert on the right side of the pitch with a sumptuous pass and the winger cut into the penalty area to fire a left-footed shot past Bart Verbruggen in the 87th minute. This was his third home game in a row that he was scoring in.
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About the Author
Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management.
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