Bournemouth

Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraloa speaking to BBC Match of the Day after Bournemouth's draw with Newcastle: "Probably before the game a point was not bad. But after our performance I think we deserved three points.

"It is true that we weren't clinical enough in the first half but we went in front and the referee's decisions affected the game then it gets much more difficult."

On Newcastle penalty, Iraola added: "It is very, very difficult to explain. Maybe I am not smart enough to understand it. It's an offside position and he affects the game because the ball goes to [Fabian Schar], my player grabs him otherwise he will go for goal.

"It is 10 minutes with six referees watching the replays. Then the VAR don't show him the image from the side so he can decide if it is offside, they only show it from the floor.

"If they decide it is a foul then it is a very soft foul but we've seen before teams grab players on set pieces and nothing is given. But if it is a foul then we have to accept it. That is a process and we could understand but he's offside, it shouldn't be difficult.

"The ball goes to [Schar], I could understand if the ball went to the opposite side but it goes straight to him.

"My player is not stupid, he knows he has to fight with him because he has got the position from being offside. I really don't understand and cannot accept the decision.

"Obviously he benefits from being offside. I feel like this does not respect my club, we played a good game but nobody will talk about this, only about the decision."

On the Cherries' performance: "We played well really well but one point is not enough. The difference is so huge from one to three points. I full believed we deserved the three points and I have to complain because I don't understand the decision."

Newcastle are winless in their past four Premier League home games (D2 L2), their longest such streak since August - November 2021 (D4 L3), a run which encompassed Eddie Howe’s first two games in charge of the club.

Bournemouth are unbeaten in their past four Premier League matches against Newcastle United (W1 D3), their longest ever such run against the Magpies.

Matt Ritchie scored his first Premier League goal in over three years, last netting against Tottenham in July 2020 – his former side Bournemouth are just the second team that he has scored two goals against in the Premier League (alongside Tottenham Hotspur).

Dominic Solanke has scored 14 goals in 24 Premier League games this season, four more than he managed across his first 96 games (10). He has scored three Premier League goals against Newcastle - only against Nottingham Forest has he netted more (four).

Anthony Gordon successfully converted what was his first ever penalty attempt in all competitions (excl. shootouts) – he has now scored eight Premier League goals this season, as many as in his previous two campaigns combined (four each).

Matt Ritchie's first Premier League goal since 2020 earned Newcastle a dramatic point and denied Bournemouth their first top-flight victory of 2024.

Eddie Howe's team were trailing going into added time but second-half substitute Ritchie converted from close range after the visitors failed to adequately deal with Bruno Guimaraes' inswinging delivery.

Bournemouth will be deeply frustrated not to have claimed all three points at St James' Park after twice taking the lead in an entertaining and, at times, chaotic second period.

Dominic Solanke capitalised on a Martin Dubravka slip to break the deadlock, only for Newcastle to equalise seven minutes later through Anthony Gordon's contentious penalty.

Antoine Semenyo appeared to have earned Bournemouth their first victory since 26 December with a thunderous finish from the edge of the penalty area, but winger Ritchie had the final say against his former club.

Newcastle stay seventh in the table, while Bournemouth move nine points clear of the bottom three.

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There are seven games being played in the Premier League on Saturday and we will bring you every moment.

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All times are GMT

BBC pundit Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches again this season, against a variety of guests.

For this weekend's games, he takes on rapper Songer, who is a Chelsea fan.

Sutton's prediction: 2-1

Newcastle's results have picked up a bit recently but now there is a lot of talk about their sporting director Dan Ashworth going to Manchester United.

Bournemouth have already beaten them once this season, which was when it all kicked off afterwards as Magpies captain Kieran Trippier had an altercation with his side's fans.

I just cannot back against Newcastle at home, though. Their manager Eddie Howe is also facing his old club and he cannot afford to lose to them on his own patch.

Anthony Gordon is fit for the Magpies and he will be a threat, while Bournemouth's form has dropped off a bit this year after they ended 2023 so well.

Songer's prediction: 1-1

I am not sold on Newcastle at all this season and I actually think Howe is in a bit of trouble, even though I do not think he should be, because they might be thinking about their next manager now that he has built them up.

I can see them dropping points here too.

Read all of Sutton's predictions for this weekend's games

Marissa Thomas
BBC Sport journalist

Andoni Iraola has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League match against Newcastle.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Iraola said his side were "not being clinical enough" after failing to win a Premier League match since Boxing Day: "We needs goals from everyone, I don't care whether it is Dom [Solanke] scoring or our defenders, I don't care."

• On the challenge of facing Newcastle, Iraola said: "They are a really offensive power, they have scored three or four in their last few games. They are scoring a lot of goals so it won't be easy for us not to concede. It is very strange if they don't score two or three goals in every game. They are very good up front."

• On injuries: "We are in a good spot injury wise. The only player we are going to lose is Romain Faivre because he is ill with a temperature."

• On Bruno Guimaraes: "He's a top-level player. Straight away when they signed him from France, he has been performing really well, very good defensively and offensively. He's also scoring goals. The other day they used him closer to the forward and also he can be the number six, the number eight, the number 10. He can do almost everything because he is very good."

• On Dominic Solanke's England chances: "We have a lot of games to play before the international break, the only thing I can say is Dom is playing very well since the beginning of the season scoring goals and he is giving us a lot of things and I hope he can have the recognition. But it is not my job to make the England squad. It is very difficult because the level of the national team is top."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences

The key facts and figures before Saturday's game between Newcastle and Bournemouth in the Premier League.

• Having lost their first two Premier League home games against Bournemouth, Newcastle are now unbeaten in their past three against them at St. James’ Park (W2 D1).

• Bournemouth have scored at least once in 14 of their past 15 Premier League games (26 goals total), failing only at home to Liverpool in January (0-4 defeat). Away from home, the Cherries have netted in their past eight (15 goals total), their longest ever such run in the top-flight.

• Newcastle have scored 51 Premier League goals in 24 matches this season – it’s the earliest into a top-flight season they’ve hit 50+ goals since 1960-61 (23rd game). Across nine seasons in the Premier League between 2012-13 and 2021-22, the Magpies didn’t score 50+ goals in a season once.

• Eddie Howe has faced Bournemouth three times in the Premier League since leaving them, and is winless in all three (D2 L1). Indeed, Newcastle managers have won just one of their past 13 Premier League matches against teams they have previously managed (D4 L8), a 3-0 win for Rafael Benitez against Chelsea in May 2018.

• Dominic Solanke has been directly involved in 15 Premier League goals this season for Bournemouth (13 goals, 2 assists), while away from home, Solanke has scored eight times and assisted five more goals in his past 16 appearances on the road in the league.

• Since the start of last season, Newcastle United have conceded a goal, on average, every 43 minutes in the Premier League with Martin Dúbravka in goal at St. James’ Park; with Nick Pope as goalkeeper, they have conceded a goal every 131 minutes on home soil in the league in this time.

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport journalist

Bournemouth's 3-1 defeat at Fulham on Saturday had echoes of some early-season performances. Despite having 25 shots (though only four were on target), defensive errors were mercilessly punished at Craven Cottage.

With goalkeeper Neto questioned for at least one of the goals, the goalkeeping topic features at length on today’s Cherries: Unpicked podcast with BBC Radio Solent's Kris Temple and Jordan Clark.

Temple said: "Criticism towards Neto has been a little bit harsh. He's an easy target, but I don't think his performance at Fulham helped him. He was culpable for the second goal where Rodrigo Muniz got between him and Illia Zabarnyi - he [Neto] needs to come out and throw himself at it."

Clark added: "He's not making howlers or obvious errors, but Bournemouth are conceding goals where I'm left thinking: 'I think he could have got to that'. And you can't be in that situation in the Premier League."

The Brazilian is club captain, a dressing-room leader and an experienced multi-lingual 34-year-old, but faces fierce competition in the shape of Mark Travers, the popular homegrown alternative.

Travers was player of the year in the Championship promotion campaign of 2021-22, but was replaced by Neto four games into the following season. After being recalled from a loan spell at Stoke in October, the Republic of Ireland international has had to bide his time, playing in two FA Cup games.

Unusually, of the 22 players over 21 who Bournemouth named in their Premier League squad for the second half of 2023-24 (leaving three of the permitted 25 slots free), five of those 22 are goalkeepers.

Behind Neto and Travers, Andrei Radu remains on loan at Vitality Stadium for the rest of the season (January rumours of a recall by Inter Milan not bearing out), Darren Randolph awaits a first competitive appearance after a year on the books, and development squad keeper Cameron Plain has been added to the squad.

And that is before we get to Will Dennis, earning rave reviews on loan at Kilmarnock this season, and 17-year-old deadline day capture Callan McKenna, signed as one for the future.

Who should be first-choice keeper for Bournemouth? Make your pick

Image source, Getty Images

With Neto's position in goal for Bournemouth under increased scrutiny by fans, who do you think should be the Cherries' starting goalkeeper?

Make your selection here

Image source, Getty Images

Jordan Clark and Kris Temple have been speaking on BBC Radio Solent's Cherries: Unpicked podcast about the "slight headache" that faces Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola.

Assessing the 3-1 loss at Fulham on Saturday, which made it five Premier League games without a win for the Cherries, Clark said: "Number 10 is a bit of a problem position. He can't really find the right formula, the right player.

"He's got so many options there but they’re all very different. Justin Kluivert’s had a go, Alex Scott’s had a go, Philip Billing plays there, Ryan Christie earlier on in the season. David Brooks could have been an option before going out on loan. And now maybe Enes Unal comes into that equation."

Temple added: "The number 10 position is a slight headache because Alex Scott just hasn't settled there. We have to remember he’s learning the level, he’s very young. If you’re learning the level whilst playing in a position that doesn’t ideally suit you, that makes it doubly difficult. Alex Scott is just, at the minute, a bit of a conundrum. They can only get him in the team out of position at the minute so that's something to look at.

"Christie wasn’t fully fit on Saturday, having taken a bit of a whack against Forest. Kluivert didn’t even get off the bench despite using all the subs so that was interesting that he wasn’t chosen.

"And the wide players are generally just a bit mixed at the moment.

"Marcus Tavernier’s having a bit of a trot, Luis Sinisterra looked bright enough at times but made bad decisions with the ball. All of that accumulates to the fact Dominic Solanke has been starved of service because the wide players are out of form."

Listen to the Cherries: Unpicked podcast on BBC Sounds

The latest episode of Cherries: Unpicked has landed

BBC Radio Solent's Jordan Clark and Kris Temple reflect on Bournemouth's Premier League defeat at Fulham, and if Neto needs to be dropped from the starting XI.

Listen to the full episode here

Sam Davis
Fan writer

Bournemouth are winless in the league so far this year. After a very prolific December, when Andoni Iraola was unlucky not to earn the manager-of-the-month award, it is natural Cherries fans are feeling a little bit reflective - perhaps pondering whether our incredible festive run was just a blip.

There is context to the 'bad run', if you can call it that. Throughout January at least, we had numerous key players injured, two important team members were playing at the Africa Cup of Nations, we had a key a suspension, plus throughout most of the month a cloud of uncertainty was hovering over the future of some vital squad members.

February's start though has been underwhelming, with two draws and a disappointing loss. The most recent match against Fulham produced echoes of performances earlier in the season, where individual errors seemed to prompt a confidence crisis.

This time though our saving grace is that we have muscle memory of knowing how to create chances. We had 25 shots at Craven Cottage, more than three times that of the hosts. The worrying part is that the total shots on target was somewhat meagre (six).

Despite the loan departures of Kieffer Moore and David Brooks, the strengthening that we have done in other areas, with Turkish striker Enes Unal joining from Getafe and Romain Faivre returning from sister club Lorient, will hopefully provide some much needed "oven-ready" quality to the side.

Sam Davis can be found at Back of the Net, external

Chelsea are tracking Bournemouth and Hungary left-back Milos Kerkez, 20. (Football Transfers)

Want more transfer stories? Read Tuesday's full gossip column

We asked you for your thoughts on Saturday's Premier League match between Fulham and Bournemouth.

Here are some of your comments:

Fulham fans

Maz: Finally we have got a result we fully deserved after the last two games where we dominated but only came away with one point from each. It’s nice to see Muniz getting a brace at home and a big shoutout to Tim [Ream] who was so solid in defence. As a team, we were immense. Bring on Villa.

Alex: A much better performance from Fulham and a great response from conceding. Muniz with two good goals, which is great for his confidence. An all-round good game from Fulham.

Luke: Fair play to Bournemouth - they came and attacked but we were far more ruthless. Muniz barely lost anything and Willian was a different class. No Tosin, Bassey or Iwobi either - shame we are too far off seventh to mount a challenge.

Chris: We totally deserved the victory. We’ve been playing well, without reward,.In this one, we got the reward

Bournemouth fans

Charl: Bournemouth look like they have reverted to last season’s debacle. There's no leadership on the field, poor passing, no ideas in front of goal and we are playing the ball backwards instead of building pressure. Tavernier, Christie, Faivre were poor, and why was Scott taken off? Enes Unal looks a great addition. Iraola, sort it out, you’re better than this!

Paul: I don’t really know what to say other than that was abysmal really. There was no cohesion and there were too many mistakes. It makes it worse that it was in front of the worst set of home fans I’ve ever witnessed. They barely sang a song and won 3-1!

Barry: Solanke needs to up his game. He gets lots of opportunities but he doesn't put many away. Look at his stats.

Tom: As ever, inadequate. Sorry, but we have got to win these ‘close’ matches. Five points dropped in the last two games.

Mark Chapman introduces highlights and analysis from Saturday's seven Premier League matches.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up on the action on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra match commentaries in full on BBC Sounds:

Liverpool 3-1 Burnley

Nottingham Forest 2-3 Newcastle

Newcastle are contemplating signing Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly, 25, this summer. (Mail), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Image source, Getty Images

Matthew Howarth, BBC Sport

Bournemouth registered 25 shots and 14 corners at Craven Cottage on Saturday, but the Cherries paid dearly for their slow start in west London.

They were behind on five minutes and would have trailed 2-0 after 10 had Neto not managed to get a strong hand to Willian's goal-bound shot.

Dominic Solanke, who had scored in five straight appearances against Fulham, blazed over the crossbar from close range on the half-hour mark - and it proved a costly miss as Fulham doubled their advantage just five minutes later.

Luis Sinisterra and Alex Scott also went close for Andoni Iraola's team in the first half before Marcos Senesi's magnificent turn and finish gave the Cherries hope early in the second - only for the home side to double their advantage moments later.

Bournemouth kept pushing late in the second half but Fulham held on relatively comfortably in the end, given the number of attempts at Bernd Leno's goal.

The Cherries remain without a win in the league since defeating Fulham 3-0 at the Vitality Stadium on Boxing Day.

Here are the key facts and figures following Saturday's game between Fulham and Bournemouth in the Premier League.

• Fulham have won five of their past seven home Premier League games (D1 L1), while their seven league wins at Craven Cottage this season is just one fewer than they managed in the entirety of 2022-23 (8).

• Bournemouth are without a win in their past five Premier League games (D2 L3), having won six of their previous seven matches before this run (D1).

• Bobby De Cordova-Reid has scored more Premier League goals against Bournemouth than he has against any other side (3). In addition, he scored and assisted in a single Premier League game for just the second time, with the previous instance coming back in October 2018 for Cardiff v his current club Fulham.

• Dominic Solanke has been directly involved in 48% of Bournemouth’s Premier League goals this season (15 out of 31), the highest share of any player for a side in 2023-24.

• There were just 111 seconds between Marcos Senesi’s strike for Bournemouth to make it 2-1 and Rodrigo Muniz’s second goal of the afternoon to make it 3-1 to Fulham.