We aren’t meant to approve of deforestation but sometimes you just have to give credit to those with the axe. Bournemouth were simply magnificent.
And of course that isn’t anything new. They have been for some time now, blitzing their way to an unbeaten run of 10 league games before this one, but who could have expected them to reduce Nottingham Forest to splinters quite like this?
Who could have forecast that when the division’s two most refreshing bolters collided, there would be such a conclusive winner?
To contextualise, let’s go to the words that echoed from three corners of the Vitality Stadium throughout stoppage time: ‘We want six.’
Poor souls didn’t get it, but five was plenty. Five was a mauling. Five was more than Nuno Espirito Santo’s brilliant side had conceded in their previous seven Premier League games combined on their surge to the top three.
If that run had slightly obscured the wonders of Bournemouth’s own campaign, then how those roles inverted. Dango Ouattara was the headliner, scoring a hat-trick in the second half, but there were far more components, including Justin Kluivert, whose three against Newcastle were followed by the opener here and an assist. Antoine Semenyo bayonetted the wounded with the fifth.
Dango Ouattara scored a hat-trick in Bournemouth’s thumping 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest
Ouattara put high-flyers Forest to the sword to continue the Cherries’ European charge
Justin Kluivert opened the scoring just a week on from his three-goal heroics at Newcastle
It was staggering in a number of individual ways, but the greatest detail, as ever, was found in the way Andoni Iraola’s team play collectively. How they go about their work.
They are breathless, frenetic, a vision of movement. Like Forest, their directness is a charming point of difference to what we usually see in the top reaches of the table, but Bournemouth imposed themselves on this match. They pressed Forest into the dirt. Bullied them with organised chaos.
For perhaps the first time in this campaign, Bournemouth also succeeded in making Forest look predictable. Those long balls and quick breaks from Nuno’s men that held Liverpool a fortnight ago had almost no say on this match. They were simply gathered up and returned with venom and hard running. It was brilliant or awful to watch, depending on your point.
Nuno was left stunned: ‘I think it surprised everybody,’ he said. ‘It’s not only today. It’s the second half against Southampton (a 3-2 win) – it’s a 7-0 in the last 130 minutes. That’s reality. So we have to take a deep look at how we did it today, so we cannot repeat it again. It’s a warning.’
Given the strength of their form, an over-reaction would possibly seem unnecessary, even if this was a hiding. As for Iraola, it is deeply impressive that he is achieving such complex choreography at a time when he has 11 men injured.
It would seem that irrespective of the opposition or the personnel available, his style is proving a winner. From Arsenal to Manchester City to Manchester United, Tottenham and now Forest, they have been a question without an answer.
For this one, the challenge was whether his fancy for risk-and-reward football would play into the wishes of a side that counters with utter viciousness. The earliest signs favoured Forest – inside 15 seconds, Matz Sels punted long, Chris Wood rapidly fed in Anthony Elanga and the strike was only a fraction wide.
But quickly Bournemouth took a subtle grip on the game and their opener, in the ninth minute, was a belter in two parts. First, it came in the one-touch rondo between David Brooks, Lewis Cook, Ryan Christie and Tyler Adams to unpin themselves from a swarm of blue shirts by their own area, before the latter threaded a ball to Kluivert.
Kluivert raced to the edge of the penalty area before tucking his finish beyond Mats Sels
Nottingham Forest were torn apart in a rare performance riddled with defensive issues
Andoni Iraola is in contention for manager of the season as Bournemouth push for top four
Tensions flared on the day as Bournemouth’s Illia Zabarnyi confronted Jota Silva (middle)
His charge began 10 yards inside his own half and the further Forest retreated, the more uninhibited Kluivert became. The subsequent low drive from the edge of the box was crisp but bagged the question of why Ola Aina gave him so much room to shoot.
Forest managed a response of sorts, with Ryan Yates and Morgan Gibbs-White sharing a pair of dangerous volleys at goal, but their momentum lived only in short bursts and died altogether after the break.
The strike for 2-0 originated with a Cook ball into the left channel for Kluivert, whose cross was as good as his recent finishing, and yet it had nothing on the leap with which Ouattara beat Murillo to the header. He flew.
Kluivert then had a goal correctly disallowed a couple of minutes later for offside, before Ouattara benefited from Nathan Dominguez’s carelessness and Murillo’s loose marking by notching his second.
Matz Sels, who like Murillo has excelled this season, added a howler of his own in palming a relatively tame cross-shot from Marcus Tavernier into Ouattara’s path for his third. Semenyo got the last off a Tavernier assist.
With Bournemouth at quite absurd heights in the table, Iraola said: ‘I think the best thing is to enjoy the game. Look at the standings but let’s try to focus. We go to Liverpool next and we try to enjoy that.’
