AFC Bournemouth stunned Newcastle United and the wider football world with their 4-1 win at St James’ Park and their hat-trick hero Justin Kluivert says they are dreaming of the club's first qualification for European football.
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Kluivert’s brilliant treble capped a superb performance from the Cherries, who were without nine first-team players through injury and had the youngest group of substitutes in the Premier League this season, at an average age of only 20 years and 74 days.
The players on Bournemouth's bench had a combined 33 Premier League appearances, with six of the nine substitutes yet to feature in the top flight, compared with a total of 979 for Newcastle's subs.
Newcastle were on a nine-match winning run in all competitions and Alexander Isak had scored in eight consecutive matches. But Bournemouth handed their former manager Eddie Howe, who still hasn’t beaten the Cherries, his heaviest home defeat in two years.
After a treble of penalties at Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier in the season, Kluivert became only the seventh player to score more than one hat-trick away from home in a Premier League campaign after Ian Wright (1993/94), Robbie Fowler (2001/02), Michael Owen (2002/03), Luis Suarez (2013/14), Harry Kane (2016/17) and Raheem Sterling (2019/20).
Kluivert also assisted Milos Kerkez’s goal to make it 4-1, making him the fourth player this season to be directly involved in four goals in a match.
The win extended Bournemouth’s unbeaten run to 10 in the Premier League and lifted them above Manchester City into sixth place on 37 points. Their total is 10 points better than their previous best points tallies at this stage of a season, in 2018/19 and 2023/24. No wonder Kluivert is aiming for the club's first-ever entry into European football.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
21 | +10 | 41 |
| 4 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
22 | +12 | 38 |
| 5 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
21 | +15 | 37 |
| 6 |
Bournemouth
BOU
|
22 | +10 | 37 |
| 7 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
22 | -1 | 36 |
| 8 |
Man City
MCI
|
21 | +9 | 35 |
"This feels lovely," Kluivert told TNT Sports. "We know how tough it is to play here. To come here with a lot of injuries and dominate like this – hats off to the team.
"I want to help my team out, and be important for the club. Our run is beautiful and we showed we are here to make an impression.
"At the start of the season, we had a lot of ambitious players in the team who want to play in Europe and we showed that. Why not dream big and we never know where we can end up. The Champions League would be very tough but who knows?"
Kluivert also managed to score more goals in one match at St James' Park than his father Patrick achieved in a season at Newcastle.
Pundits queue up to hail Cherries
It was a performance that had a raft of former players queueing up to praise Bournemouth.
Former Leicester City midfielder and Celtic manager Neil Lennon said it was "one the best team performances I have seen all season."
Lennon told BBC Sport: "A great team performance on and off the ball - they totally outplayed Newcastle. Bournemouth were magnificent today.
"I have not seen a team go to Newcastle and dominate the game like that in and out of possession. Bournemouth hurt Newcastle in all aspects of the pitch today."
Former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman said of Bournemouth: "They were worthy winners in the end. To a man, with their energy levels when closing down, they were fantastic.
"Kluivert will get all the plaudits for his hat-trick [and] I thought [Illia] Zabarnyi and [Dean] Huijsen were magnificent.
"They could have scored more, but to score four up at Newcastle was a feat in itself. It was a wonderful performance, I did not see it coming at all.
"I thought Newcastle would roll on, given the form they've been in, but they just could not get going for one reason or another and Bournemouth were completely the opposite.
"They were absolutely flying all over the park, it was a great performance from them."
Newcastle legend Alan Shearer was just as effusive in his praise for the Cherries as they beat his former side.
"Bournemouth stopped Newcastle from playing, right from the very first minute," he said. "They were up for it, they were organised, they were tactically superb. They were so well organised in every single position.
"The way they closed Newcastle down, the way they blocked everything that Newcastle tried to do. They were the team that were playing on the front foot.
"They were the team with all the energy and they were the team that really, from the first minute, deserved to win the game because they got down the right-hand side and the left-hand side so many times."
Shearer pinpointed Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola as the reason for the performance.
"Kluivert has caused havoc all afternoon, as well as so many other impressive performances in that team, probably none more so than the manager who deserves great credit.
"The way he set them up, the way they were well organised. We know how tough it is going to St James' Park, but they made it look very, very easy and they've done what a lot of teams couldn't do this season, which is stop Newcastle and play themselves."
