Norwich City were completely outclassed and outplayed by AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium today, with the Cherries running out 3-0 winners.
Many expected Norwich to bounce back from their previous two games, in which Norwich were knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester City, and a Gary O’Neil red card added to a dismal evening in the Potteries, where Stoke beat Norwich 3-1.
Alex Neil was forced to make changes thanks to O’Neil’s red midweek, with Matt Jarvis making his return to the side after a long spell out with injury. Bournemouth’s new signing Lewis Grabban was absent with an “Illness” but former Norwich target Benik Afobe started up front.
The game kicked off with Bournemouth firmly in control, a trend that seemingly lasted for the full ninety minutes. Afobe managed to outmuscle Ryan Bennett in the first few minutes of the game but saw his shot fly high over the bar. It didn’t take the Cherries long to get in front after Ryan Gosling was left unmarked in the box and headed the ball past Declan Rudd to give Bournemouth the lead.
The Norwich fightback never came, and Bournemouth still had control of the game. It took Norwich over 40 minutes to simply get the ball into the Bournemouth area, and then a lack of quality and awareness lead to Artur Boruc having barely anything to deal with for the entire match.
Bournemouth were unhappy with the Referee’s decisions throughout most of the first half. They were unhappy when Daniels fell in the box thanks to a Russell Martin challenge and nothing was given, and then again when Declan Rudd brought down Benik Afobe just outside the area. The birthday boy was lucky to stay on the pitch and was only booked for the foul.
Half-time came, and many Norwich fans expected a change in tactics, and maybe a little ‘wee chat’ from Alex Neil.
If there was, it didn’t work.
Norwich came out for the second half in seemingly the same mindset as the first, and 10 minutes in Vadis Odidija-Ofoe brought down Pugh in the box, which turned out to be the Belgian’s last play of the game, leading to Daniels converting from the spot.
Norwich’s changes added nothing to the game, with Redmond and Jerome both being unable to even give Norwich fans some hope that they could, at least, salvage a point.
The Canaries also had lots of set pieces but were unable to actually do anything from them. The balls either went over everyone, not past the first man, or simply headed away by the Bournemouth defenders. Mbokani produced one of the worst misses of the season, after skilfully winning the ball, when his chip over Boruc went high and wide.
Afobe scored in the 75th minute, as he was always going to do, and the game was up for Norwich.
It’s now two league defeats in the space of four days for Norwich, and that was possibly the worst performance we’ve seen under Alex Neil (Yes, worse than Newcastle AND Watford). Questions have to be asked of where Norwich can go from here, especially with our current run of fixtures.
