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Is this the moment a rough patch turns into a full blown crisis for Eddie Howe? As Alex Scott shone in Bournemouth’s midfield and Adrien Truffert’s late winner prompted wild visiting celebrations, it certainly looked that way.
Newcastle’s manager has now presided over four straight defeats and, with his team stuck in 14th, any vision of European qualification seems a fast receding speck in the distance.
Howe has never beaten his old Bournemouth side in the Premier League and was forced to watch, glumly, from the technical area as Andoni Iraola’s players extended their unbeaten league run to a club record 13 games.
If last week’s news that Iraola is to depart the south coast this summer clearly failed to disrupt the upward visiting trajectory, Bournemouth’s pleasingly fluid football and slick transitions merely emphasised how far and alarmingly Newcastle have regressed since last month’s Champions League thrashing at Barcelona.
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.
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.
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.
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’s play than any supporter apathy. It speaks volumes that one of the biggest first half cheers was in response to substitute Bruno Guimarães gently jogging up and down the touchline.
Guimarães 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’s faulty connection saw him direct Scott’s excellent cross wide from two yards out.
Admittedly the otherwise underworked Djorde Petrovic did well to claw Lewis Hall’s deflected free-kick to safety but, otherwise, Howe’s players were utterly listless.
The smattering of boos that greeted half-time cannot have surprised Newcastle’s manager. His cause was hardly helped by Hall’s struggles to subdue Rayan and Harvey Barnes’s failure to dodge the similarly incisive Alex Jiménez.
With the talented Eli Junior Kroupi further destabilising his defence, Howe had much to ponder.
He could have done with Anthony Gordon at his best wide on the left but the latterly inconsistent England winger was absent with a “minor injury” at the end of a week of intense transfer speculation linking him with Bayern Munich.
Something had to change though and, just after the hour mark, Howe replaced the ineffective Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey with Jacob Murphy and Guimarães. Newcastle’s medical team had advised the manager against involving the captain but Howe knew he needed his often talismanic influence.
The Brazilian’s appearance certainly succeeded in lifting the Tyneside mood, something highlighted when Sandro Tonali kissed Guimarães’s cheek as he handed him the captain’s armband.
Shortly afterwards Osula equalised with Guimarães the slightly fortunate creator. As the latter drove forward, Evanilson’s challenge ended up inadvertently putting Osula through. All that remained was for the Denmark Under-21 striker’s shot to evade Petrovic’s grasp after cutting in on his right foot.
Although the goal was initially disallowed for offside, Evanilson’s intervention ensured that, after a lengthy video assistant referee review it stood.
If Osula’s poised finish emphasised why he is now ahead of £124m worth of attacking talent in the controversially overlooked Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in Howe’s frontline pecking order, the manager’s luck did not hold for long,
Barely had the celebrations subsided than Newcastle’s England full-back Tino Livramento pulled up nursing a hamstring injury and was replaced by Dan Burn.
Howe’s horizon would soon turn even bleaker. When Evanilson headed down Tavernier’s 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’s manager really was in crisis mode.
