Bournemouth 0-2 Crystal Palace: Eagles soar to ninth in Premier League after return win

The first Premier League fixture broadcast live on the BBC was one to forget for Eddie Howe's side, who suffered a fourth defeat in five games.

It leaves the Cherries in the bottom three and with a tricky run of matches to come, the future looks bleak for the south coast club.

For Roy Hodgson's Palace, they made it four straight victories - albeit the most recent before this was 105 days ago - with a professional display to throw their name into the hat when it comes to European qualification.

The return of David Brooks after a year out gave the hosts a boost before kick-off and he looked lively from the outset.

Palace were able to settle quickly though and picked up where they left off before the suspension of football by going ahead in the 12th minute.

Wilfried Zaha - not long after curling over - won a free-kick after contact from Brooks and it provided Milivojevic with the chance to open the scoring.

The Serbian curled over the wall and despite Aaron Ramsdale getting a hand to it, the shot hit the crossbar and went in for the first top-flight goal shown live on the BBC since March 1988.

Bournemouth responded initially with Callum Wilson heading over Brooks' cross but by the midway point of the first half the Eagles had extended their advantage.

Zaha spotted the overlapping run of Patrick Van Aanholt on the left and he found Ayew, who side-footed home in the 23rd minute for his ninth goal of the season.

Despite netting for the third consecutive game, the Eagles striker was becoming increasingly frustrated with referee Stuart Attwell and received a caution just before half-time.

Howe had seen enough and introduced Arnaut Danjuma in place of Harry Wilson during the break, but was forced into another change early in the second period when Joshua King had to be replaced by Dominic Solanke.

King injured his ankle after a strong challenge by Gary Cahill, which was reviewed by video assistant referee but not deemed a red card.

Brooks' return from a long-term ankle injury lasted just past the hour mark but after suffering cramp he was withdrawn with Junior Stanislas taking his place, and it was the substitute's corner which saw Nathan Ake head straight at Vicente Guaita.

The 63rd-minute effort was Bournemouth's first on target, although it was not the beginning of a recovery.

Palace continued to keep the hosts at bay and moved above Arsenal with a fourth successive clean sheet ahead of their visit to Liverpool on Wednesday.

Opta stats

• Crystal Palace have won four consecutive Premier League games, the best ongoing winning run of all sides in the competition; only in December 1992 and April 2014 (both five in a row) have they enjoyed a longer winning streak in the top-flight.
• Bournemouth have lost seven Premier League games in 2020; no other side has lost more during this calendar year (level with West Ham).
• This was the first time Crystal Palace scored more than one goal in the first half of a Premier League game this season; they last did so on the final day of the 2018-19 campaign, which was also against Bournemouth.
• Bournemouth have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last 13 league matches, conceding 25 goals across this spell.
• Crystal Palace have won three consecutive league meetings with Bournemouth for the first time since April 1988.
• Of Luka Milivojevic's 27 Premier League goals for Crystal Palace, 24 have come from either a penalty (21) or direct free-kick (3), accounting for 89% of his goals in the competition.
• Coming in the 12th minute, Luka Milivojevic’s opener was the first goal Crystal Palace have scored in the opening 20 minutes of any Premier League match this season.
• Both of Jordan Ayew's last two Premier League goals have been scored in the first half; only one of his first 23 strikes in the competition had been in the opening 45 minutes before this.

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