Going into the match, AFC Bournemouth fans must have been thinking that last week’s high of defeating defending Champions Chelsea was going to be as good as it gets in their debut season in the Premier League, but they were in for an ecstatic surprise as the Cherries pulled off a 2-1 victory over 20-time League Champions Manchester United.
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Marouane Fellaini equalized but more embarrassment for United at a 54th-minute corner handed Bournemouth victory, with Josh King finding himself in lots of space to turn in a shot from a pre-planned corner routine.
United fell behind after precisely 100 seconds when Junior Stanislas’s wind-assisted corner from the left deceived visiting goalkeeper David de Gea and curled straight into the net.
Former United striker Owen was following the match, and he was far from impressed with Louis van Gaal’s side performance.
With Van Gaal already coming under fire over his side’s style of play and the limitations of his squad despite heavy investment in new players, it will have done nothing to strengthen the Dutchman’s position.
Manchester United dropped to the Europa League after crashing out from a relatively easy group comprising of PSV, CSKA Moscow and Wolfburg.
Fellaini nearly levelled again before King had to be substituted due to injury – with Chelsea match-winner Glenn Murray replacing him.
“It is always very disappointing when you are at the top of the table when you lose to a club at the bottom of the table”, he added.
The little coastal club that nearly dropped out of the country’s professional leagues six years ago beat Chelsea 1-0 away last weekend for what ranked as the biggest win in its 116-year history.
The former Crystal Palace man had two golden chances to seal all three points again but blazed wildly over on both occasions. It’s not for me to get involved really, I’m just about getting back to work really and working hard this week and we’re focussed on next week to get back to winning games. This run for me started at Swansea, we have been building momentum. “I’d practised it (the corner routine) a bit and missed it every time”. I thought the young lads did well.
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“Pace is such an important thing in any league but even more so in the Premier League so I think those two players (King and Stanislas) have had a huge impact in just changing the balance of the team”.
