Result: Everton fall to defeat at Bournemouth
A first-half goal from Junior Stanislas has earned Bournemouth a 1-0 victory over previously-unbeaten Everton.
The Toffees went into the game with the chance to potentially go top of the table should Manchester City drop points at Swansea City but as Pep Guardiola‘s men won a sixth successive game, Everton dropped to fourth after slipping up at the Vitality Stadium.
An entertaining opening 10 minutes saw Callum Wilson flick a header wide for Bournemouth before Artur Boruc pulled off an outstanding save to prevent Romelu Lukaku‘s header from finding the corner.
Jack Wilshere also came within inches of netting his first Cherries goal when his deflected shot struck the crossbar but just after the midway point of the half, Bournemouth went in front when Stanislas found the top corner with an excellent effort.
The remainder of the first half passed without incident but Bournemouth nearly doubled their advantage soon after the restart when an overhead kick from Steve Cook went just wide of the post.
Everton applied plenty of pressure to the home side’s goal during the final half-hour but Boruc was not called into action on too many occasions with the Polish stopper’s best work coming when clawing away a cross from Gerard Deulofeu.
With two minutes left, Enner Valencia had the chance to score his first goal for the visitors but despite meeting Yannick Bolasie‘s cross, he could only knee the ball wide.
Five minutes of added-time were signalled by the referee but Bournemouth were able to hang on to record their second successive home win.
