Bournemouth use dark arts to batter Newcastle as Arsenal given Carabao Cup blueprint

Two of the Premier League’s in-form sides battled it out at St James’ Park as Newcastle United flunked the chance to make history against a brilliant Bournemouth – whisper it quietly – very well versed in dark arts.
Newcastle chased a club-record tenth win in a row when they hosted Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, while the Cherries were hoping to continue their own incredible unbeaten run of 10 matches, most recently extended with a draw that should have been a win at Chelsea.
Unfortunately for the Magpies, they were second best all afternoon against a Bournemouth team very confident and impressive on the ball. Andoni Iraola’s outfit have been going about their business pretty quietly but have put themselves in a wonderful position to be playing European football for the first time next season.
Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has only won twice in this fixture in the Premier League, both at St James’ Park as Bournemouth manager in the club’s first two seasons in the top flight. Iraola has his number and is doing a wonderful job, putting the club in a great position to eclipse the record points tally he set last season, which broke the previous record held by Howe in 2016/17. That team finished a club-record ninth, which will surely be bettered this year.
Their success in 24/25 obviously comes from the tactical nous of the Spanish manager and how he has improved his players but their recruitment has been equally impressive. Ryan Christie has gone from being completely average to completely crucial to everything this team is about, while Lewis Cook is one of the best defensive midfielders in the division and played right-back for the first time in his career up against Anthony Gordon. The only other time he has played in defence was at centre-back against Crystal Palace last April.
In terms of Iraola’s recruitment, he has seriously nailed it with left-back Milos Kerkez, who is the best candidate to either replace Andy Robertson at Liverpool or become Ruben Amorim’s left wing-back at Manchester United.
Dean Huijsen and lllia Zabarnyi are ridiculously good pick ups at centre-back, Kepa Arrizabalaga has been a savvy loan addition and Justin Kluivert is enjoying the best spell of his career in what is supposed to be the most difficult and competitive league in world football.
One of Iraola’s best achievements on the south coast is how he has created a group of absolute b**tards.
From the first minute at St James’ Park, expert dark arts were on show. That takes nothing away from the football they played because Bournemouth ran rings around Newcastle, which is no mean feat considering the Magpies’ form in recent months. Howe’s men are top of the Premier League form table from November 1 with eight wins, two draws and two defeats, winning their last six and keeping five clean sheets in the process.
They fell well short of the record tenth consecutive win, while Alexander Isak ended his run of eight consecutive league matches scored in, meaning Jamie Vardy remains king.
But Bournemouth… bloody hell, they were ridiculously good. Winning 4-1 at St James’ Park is an outstanding achievement and wanting to talk about their dark arts, professional fouling and maturity seems completely pointless now; we will do it anyway.
Before Saturday’s match, people knew they were very clever at when and where they concede fouls, consistently killing counter attacks before they could get going and this worked a treat against the Magpies. They went into the game with the joint-fourth most yellow cards (51) and received six more here, had committed the most fouls (282) and made 18 more at St James’, yet have not received a single red card and have only conceded one penalty – for handball – in 24/25.
From the first whistle, Bruno Guimaraes was getting dispossessed or nailed every time he got on the ball and as soon as Bournemouth turned the ball over, they would make a foul small enough to avoid a caution but clever enough to ensure their hosts could not get up the pitch.
The most fouled player in the Premier League, Guimaraes, was fouled a silly seven times by Bournemouth players and had an error leading to a goal. The result and being caught on the ball for Kluivert’s second of three made his first-half equaliser completely irrelevant.
Their style and use of dark arts will no doubt have frustrated Newcastle and although it massively contributed to winning 4-1, they were still better in pretty much every aspect, obviously including finishing.
Kluivert opened the scoring inside six minutes, equalling his father Patrick’s goal tally at St James’ Park without having played there for a year. It was a lovely finish with his left foot, hard and low past an in-form Martin Dubravka, who might force his move to Saudi Arabia after Saturday’s shocking defeat.
After Guimaraes’ equaliser, it was Kluivert with another crisp finish, again hard and low past a helpless Dubravka, who had his Brazilian teammate to blame.
Bournemouth thought they had gone 3-1 up in the 61st minute but the ball went out of play. With Newcastle pushing for an equaliser, the visitors did get a third to put the game to bed and what a goal it was. Justin bloody Kluivert was at it again, completing his second hat-trick of the season with a sublime 25-yard strike that left Dubravka playing musical statues.
Just to rub salt in the wounds, the brilliant Kerkez made it 4-1 seconds after Gordon had a shot cleared off the line on a chastening afternoon for Howe’s side.
The scoreline might have flattered Bournemouth a little but there is no doubt Newcastle were nowhere near good enough to merit even a draw.
In their combative and talented three-man engine room, Joelinton has done well but has not been on the same level as Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, who have been two of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season.
Joelinton was pretty poor against the Cherries and when things are not going his way, he can get very emotional, if not a little angry, which was evident with his yellow card challenge in the first half which resulted in handbags between himself and Kluivert.
What Howe needs to ensure is that this is nothing more than a blip in their quest to qualify for the Champions League, but with Bournemouth breathing down their neck in sixth, they have more than Chelsea, Manchester City and Aston Villa to worry about.
Success in the Premier League is imperative but so is ending the club’s trophy drought, which they have a strong chance of doing this season having won their Carabao Cup first leg 2-0 at Arsenal, while Tottenham lead Liverpool in the other semi-final.
Mikel Arteta will analyse what Bournemouth did well as they won by a score that would send his team to Wembley. The blueprint is there and Howe has a big week in training to ensure his players bounce back at Southampton next week. Not a bad game to get back into the swing of things in fairness.