Premier League<\/a> and was forced to watch, glumly, from the technical area as Andoni Iraola\u2019s players extended their unbeaten league run to a club record 13 games.<\/p>\nIf last week\u2019s news that Iraola is to depart the south coast this summer clearly failed to disrupt the upward visiting trajectory, Bournemouth\u2019s pleasingly fluid football and slick transitions merely emphasised how far and alarmingly Newcastle have regressed since last month\u2019s Champions League thrashing at Barcelona.<\/p>\n
By the end many of those booing the home team off were doubtless hoping Iraola might replace Howe this summer. Damningly, they managed one shot on target and that, scored by the improving Will Osula, was created by a Bournemouth error.<\/p>\n
It was all too easy to see how Newcastle have lost eight of their last 11 Premier League games, with only Tottenham exhibiting worse top tier form during 2026.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth were ahead in the 32nd minute when, with Sven Botman suffering a concentration outage, Marcus Tavernier slid in to force a menacing low cross from the impressive Rayan over the line from close range.<\/p>\n
As Howe stared blankly into space the stadium fell silent but it had never been that noisy. This was much more about the incoherence and passivity of Newcastle\u2019s play than any supporter apathy. It speaks volumes that one of the biggest first half cheers was in response to substitute Bruno Guimar\u00e3es gently jogging up and down the touchline.<\/p>\n
Guimar\u00e3es is still convalescing from a combination of injury and illness but the Brazil midfielder looked more dynamic than several teammates. Indeed Newcastle were extremely fortunate not to concede a second goal when Evanilson\u2019s faulty connection saw him direct Scott\u2019s excellent cross wide from two yards out.<\/p>\n
Admittedly the otherwise underworked Djorde Petrovic did well to claw Lewis Hall\u2019s deflected free-kick to safety but, otherwise, Howe\u2019s players were utterly listless.<\/p>\n
The smattering of boos that greeted half-time cannot have surprised Newcastle\u2019s manager. His cause was hardly helped by Hall\u2019s struggles to subdue Rayan and Harvey Barnes\u2019s failure to dodge the similarly incisive Alex Jim\u00e9nez.<\/p>\n
With the talented Eli Junior Kroupi further destabilising his defence, Howe had much to ponder.<\/p>\n
He could have done with Anthony Gordon at his best wide on the left but the latterly inconsistent England winger was absent with a \u201cminor injury\u201d at the end of a week of intense transfer speculation linking him with Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n
Something had to change though and, just after the hour mark, Howe replaced the ineffective Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey with Jacob Murphy and Guimar\u00e3es. Newcastle\u2019s medical team had advised the manager against involving the captain but Howe knew he needed his often talismanic influence.<\/p>\n
Marcus Tavernier gives Bournemouth a first-half lead from Rayan\u2019s cross. Photograph: WM Sports Media\/Action Plus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
The Brazilian\u2019s appearance certainly succeeded in lifting the Tyneside mood, something highlighted when Sandro Tonali kissed Guimar\u00e3es\u2019s cheek as he handed him the captain\u2019s armband.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards Osula equalised with Guimar\u00e3es the slightly fortunate creator. As the latter drove forward, Evanilson\u2019s challenge ended up inadvertently putting Osula through. All that remained was for the Denmark Under-21 striker\u2019s shot to evade Petrovic\u2019s grasp after cutting in on his right foot.<\/p>\n
Although the goal was initially disallowed for offside, Evanilson\u2019s intervention ensured that, after a lengthy video assistant referee review it stood.<\/p>\n
If Osula\u2019s poised finish emphasised why he is now ahead of \u00a3124m worth of attacking talent in the controversially overlooked Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in Howe\u2019s frontline pecking order, the manager\u2019s luck did not hold for long,<\/p>\n
Barely had the celebrations subsided than Newcastle\u2019s England full-back Tino Livramento pulled up nursing a hamstring injury and was replaced by Dan Burn.<\/p>\n
Howe\u2019s horizon would soon turn even bleaker. When Evanilson headed down Tavernier\u2019s looping cross the ball fell kindly to Truffert inside the six-yard box. A swipe of a boot later the left-back had scored his first goal for Bournemouth and Newcastle\u2019s manager really was in crisis mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is this the moment a rough patch turns into a full blown crisis for Eddie Howe? As Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-903225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116426992039436120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}