Bournemouth ran out 3-0 winners against a sluggish Brighton side on Sunday to move them back into the top ten and level on points with Chelsea in ninth. 

Goals from Marcos Senesi, Enes Unal and Justin Kluivert handed Bournemouth the victory which raises their points total to 48, beating their previous Premier League record points total of 46 set in the 2016-17 season, with three games still left to play. 

Speaking on the team’s success, Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola called it a “very good achievement.”

“This team deserves it after the season they have had. We still have three more difficult games to play and we will try to finish as high as we can too.”

Bournemouth’s end-of-season run-in sees them face an eclectic mix of sides including Arsenal, Brentford and Chelsea, and they will be hoping to extend their record points total further with a top-ten finish alongside it. 

A 'complete' performance 

Commenting on the game, Iraola labelled his team’s performance as “complete.” 

“Brighton are a difficult team to play against. You have to keep your structure, your heads and wait for your moments.” 

It was Bournemouth’s third 3-0 win of the season, the previous two coming against Fulham and Manchester United as they stretched their unbeaten home run to six games in the league. 

“In the transitions we were really dangerous and we scored some well-worked goals today.” 

But it was not just the attacking play that caught the gaffer’s eye. 

Iraola was quick to praise his team’s defensive performance too. 

“We were really good without the ball because it is difficult to cover every passing line and to defend the way we did in the end, it was very good.” 

It was only Mark Travers’ second Premier League appearance of the season, his first coming earlier in the week against Wolves and despite the lack of game time, it did not stop the Bournemouth keeper from maintaining his 100% clean sheet record, as they head to the league leaders next weekend. 

Slim first-team pickings

Upon the team news an hour before kick-off, Bournemouth fans could have been forgiven for believing the line-up was a very late April Fool’s joke. 

It was a side that unfamiliarly featured two strikers and omitted the forever-present Ukrainian defender Illia Zabarnyi, who was suffering from a bug. 

Iraola said: “We did not have a lot of players available and it was a matter of who to start and who will impact the game. In the second half, the bench was not as strong as it has been in other games, so we had to demand a lot of the players who started.” 

On giving Turkish striker Enes Unal his first league start alongside Dominic Solanke, Iraola was complementary saying: “Enes was pushing a lot in training and was using the few minutes we have given him well in games.” 

“I was thinking today was a good day to be brave [with the formation] and between Enes and Dom, I thought they could be a problem for Brighton’s centre-backs.

Injury frustrations grow

However, despite the great result, the game ended on a rather sour note when winger Antoine Semenyo was stretchered off during added time, potentially with a knee injury. 

“It was the worst part of the game”, the Bournemouth boss said. 

“It does not look good and we will have to wait for the assessment to see how bad it is. I am sure we will lose him for the rest of the season.” 

“We are really thin on numbers now, so everyone will need to put the effort in.” 

“We will try to recover some bodies and regroup for these last few difficult games”, said Iraola as he hoped to end the season with a flourish.