There is a yellow wall in Bournemouth, but it is made of sandstone and lies beneath the row of pines that edge the cricket pitch just over the road from the car park. Having played in front of the Yellow Wall at Dortmund on Tuesday – capacity of stand: 25,000 – a process of recalibration is required for Newcastle to play at Dean Court – capacity of stadium: 11,379. That readjustment, as much as fatigue, is the problem presented by the Champions League.
And it is becoming a problem: Newcastle have won only one of four games after European ties this season. That was, admittedly, the 8-0 win at Sheffield United, but at West Ham and at Wolves they were as flat as they were here. Seven points have been dropped in those three games. That doesn’t in any sense means that another Champions League qualification is impossible or even unlikely, but they do now lie behind Manchester United, for all their perpetual crisis. “We couldn’t be where we needed to be for it,” said Eddie Howe. “In and out of possession we were unrecognisable. They’re such honest players and they’ve given me so much that I’m absolutely clear I have to support them.”
Newcastle have won just one of six away league games this season and that is clearly causing frustration among some travelling fans, one of whom became involved in a heated exchange with Kieran Trippier after the final whistle.
“The fans are emotional,” the full- back said. “They have travelled a long way. I had a chat with one of them, saying we are giving everything and there’s no need to panic.”
The physical demands are clearly taking their toll. Newcastle were without nine players due to injury, including Callum Wilson who has withdrawn from the England squad. With Bruno Guimarães suspended for an accumulation of yellow cards and Sandro Tonali banned for betting offences, two goalkeepers were named on the bench and there was a first Premier League start for the 17-year-old midfielder Lewis Miley. He played well enough and is clearly a player of immense promise, but this was, understandably, a disjointed Newcastle performance.
Within half an hour, Miguel Almirón had been added to the casualty list after going down with a hamstring injury. He is one of 32 Premier League players currently unavailable because of hamstring issues, a spike that has been blamed on a combination of the stress placed in players by the modern fixture list combined with VAR and the way it gives games a stop-start rhythm.
There has been a strange sense that, with the exception of the 3-0 defeat at Everton, Bournemouth had not played badly this season, despite starting the day in the relegation zone. In part, that is probably due to the fixture list – they are yet this season to play Sheffield United, Luton, Fulham, Nottingham Forest or Crystal Palace, all currently in the bottom half.
Poor results that don’t match up to performances are probably preferable to poor results that do, but neither is a particularly good sign. At some point if results remain disappointing, confidence goes and then the jig really is up.
But this was a good result to go with a good performance. They outran and outplayed Newcastle and, but for a series of fine saves from Nick Pope and some wayward finishing, would have won far more comfortably. It’s a victory that lifts them out of the relegation zone and, perhaps just as importantly, suggests there is substance to Andoni Iraola’s methods before this crucial stage of the season.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
Iraola described the performance as Bournemouth’s “most complete” of the season, although he admitted there was some anxiety at half-time that they had not managed to convert any of the four or five decent chances they had created. “We were doing well,” he said, “but we could not lose 1% because if we lost 1% they would start pressuring us. We wanted them to feel they would be under pressure, that it was not going to be an easy day for them.”
Dominic Solanke got both goals to take his league tally for the season to six, matching his total for the whole of last season. He forced in the first on the hour after a Joe Willock challenge had fallen into his path, and then flicked in the second with his heel after Luis Sinisterra’s header had come back off the post.
