6 2GG Monday July 27 2020 | the times
thegame Battle for survival The losers
How fight for survival unfolded 4:05pm 4:13pm 4:34pm 4:41pm
P WD L FA GD Pts
Aston Villa.....37 9 7 21 40 66 -26 34
Watford..........37 8 10 19 34 61 -27 34
B’mouth.........37 8 7 22 37 64 -27 31
Norwich (R)..37 5 6 26 26 70-44 21Norwich are already down,
while Bournemouth and
Watford sit in the other two
relegation places. Aston Villa
are out of the bottom three only
on goal difference.Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s
early penalty gives Watford the
worst possible start, and leaves
Aston Villa with a little bit of
breathing space, one point
above the relegation zone.Josh King scores a penalty after
Richarlison’s handball, moving
Bournemouth above Watford
on goal difference. They remain
in the bottom three though with
Aston Villa level at West Ham.Arsenal race to a three-goal
lead that looks unsurmountable
for Watford, seemingly leaving
Aston Villa and Bournemouth
to fight it out for Premier
League safety.Everton equalise against
Bournemouth through Moise
Kean. As things stand, Aston
Villa can now afford to lose
against West Ham and still stay
up.70% 30%
POSSESSION57
SHOTS ON TARGET11 9
FOULS13
King 13 (pen)
Solanke 45+1
Stanislas 80Kean 41Plenty of
heart on
show, but
too late
RATINGS
Everton (4-2-3-1): J Pickford 5 — S Coleman 6
(D Sidibe 58min, 5), M Keane 6, J Branthwaite 5,
L Digne 5 (L Baines 70, 7) — A Gomes 5, T Davies
5 (Bernard 70, 5) — T Walcott 6 (A Gordon 58 5),
G Sigurdsson 5, Richarlison 5 — M Kean 6
(D Calvert-Lewin 70, 5). Booked Keane.
Bournemouth (4-4-2): A Ramsdale 7 — A Smith
6, S Cook 6, L Kelly 6, D Rico 6 — D Brooks 7
(J Stanislas 64, 6), J Lerma 7, D Gosling 6, J King
7 (H Wilson 88) — C Wilson 6, D Solanke 7
(P Billing 64, 6).
Referee C Kavanagh.Everton Bournemouth
Solanke, above, heads
home to give
Bournemouth hope of
beating the drop on a
dramatic final day but
Aston Villa’s draw with
West Ham confirmed
Bournemouth’s
relegation leaving
Howe and Callum
Wilson, left, dejected at
the final whistle, along
with their goalkeeper,
Aaron Ramsdale, rightKean tapped home Theo Walcott’s
cross and Bournemouth’s confidence
could so easily have unravelled as
they sought the victory that
demanded Villa could not saunter to
safety.
What will irk Howe in the context
of the rest of the season is that those
setbacks were shrugged aside. As
their top-flight careers flashed in
front of them, so his players dug
deeper. Diego Rico’s free kick invited
Jefferson Lerma and Solanke to
attack it together. Lerma celebratedinjuries will have played a part, it has
been a formula Howe subsequently
veered away from only to return to it
as panic set in. The link-up between
the three of them was displayed early
on as Wilson was denied by an
excellent Jordan Pickford save.
Respite was brief.
Richarlison thrust out his arm in
the box. Chris Kavanagh, the referee,
instantly awarded a penalty and King,
the weight of the world on his
shoulders, dispatched the spot kick.
Everton equalised when Moiseinside Goodison Park flashed regular
updates — was unable to stop the rot
does not reflect well on the 42-year-
old. Perhaps the solution had been in
front of him all along.
For the first time since the
beginning of October, he selected
Josh King, Dominic Solanke and
Callum Wilson in his first XI. They
had started four consecutive matches
back then, which yielded seven points
from 12 and included another 3-1 win
over Everton.
Yet for whatever reason, andAt the final whistle, there were a
couple more minutes of gut-
wrenching uncertainty for Eddie
Howe. Then, before the
Bournemouth manager had trudged
out of view and to the sanctuary of a
makeshift dressing room in a
portakabin in the car park, crushing
reality bit hard.
This had been the sort of
fluctuating afternoon that neatly
encapsulated his side’s season, as
hopes initially rose they might, at the
very last, wriggle off the hook only for
excitement to turn to unremitting
misery. It was all too little, too late.
The favour Bournemouth required
from West Ham United against Aston
Villa did not transpire and so they
tumbled through the trapdoor
pursued by a nagging sense of regret
as they prepare for life in the
Championship.
Howe, a boyhood Everton fan but
so synonymous with the south coast
club, will mull over his future as five
seasons in the top flight came to a
shattering, chastening, if predicted,
end.
Firstly, there was a heartfelt
message to the club’s supporters, as he
said: “I would like to say sorry. We
haven’t been good enough.
“In terms of feeling and emotions
this has been the hardest moment of
my career. I know the players are
hurting. It [the dressing room] is verysolemn. The next step for me is to
speak to the owner and the board of
directors and see where we go from
here. We need to have a strong vision
of the future.”
The tightness in the turnaround
between seasons means such soul-
searching must be quick. The scenario
that Howe has been plunged into is
not one he could have envisaged back
on November 2, when Bournemouth
beat Manchester United 1-0 at home
to move into seventh position in the
table.
This was only their fifth victory
since then and that Howe — aware of
the late drama at the London
Stadium as the giant scoreboardStat of the season
180
Bournemouth spent 180 days in the
relegation zone — 13 fewer Aston Villa,
who managed to stay up. Norwich
spent 311 days in the bottom threePAUL JOYCE