Soccer Football - Premier League - Southampton v AFC Bournemouth - St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, Britain - February 15, 2025 Southampton's Jan Bednarek in action with AFC Bournemouth's Dango Ouattara Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra
SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) - Dango Ouattara, Ryan Christie and Marcus Tavernier were all on the scoresheet as Bournemouth comfortably beat relegation-threatened Southampton 3-1 at St Mary's Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.
Bournemouth moved up to fifth in the standings with 43 points from 25 matches, while Southampton remain bottom with nine points. Bournemouth are just one point behind champions Manchester City, who are fourth.
"We will try. While we have the chance we will try," Southampton manager Ivan Juric told Sky Sports when asked if his side can stay up.
"They were the better team in the first half and second half I think we did really well but it was not enough...
"It is always something, there are moments where we are really good and moments when we are not good enough. There are moments in the game when we were better.
"Mentality, quality, you can put everything inside this. We are in a bad situation and there were some positives but not enough to take points in the Premier League. The players are giving 100%. I had a feeling that they have given the maximum."
Bournemouth hit Southampton with two rapid-fire goals, with Ouattara opening the scoring in the 14th minute and two minutes later Christie doubled their lead.
Bournemouth's opener came when Christie delivered a quality cross from the left for Ouattara, who got enough power on his glancing header to send it past Saints goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale into the bottom corner.
Burkina Faso international Ouattara, 23, has now scored seven goals in the Premier League this season, having netted a hat-trick in his side's 5-0 thrashing of fellow surprise package Nottingham Forest in January.
Southampton quickly found themselves 2-0 down as Christie, assisted by the in-form Dutch forward Justin Kluivert, sent a powerful strike from 20 yards.
Just as the visitors took their foot off the gas after the break, Kamaldeen Sulemana pulled one back for Southampton in the 72nd minute as the Ghanaian forward buried the ball into the bottom corner to score his first goal of the Premier League season.
But substitute Tavernier netted in the 83rd minute to seal all three points for Bournemouth.
Bournemouth, who beat the Saints 3-1 win at the Vitality Stadium in September, have now completed the league double over Southampton for the first time.
Prior to their 2-0 home loss against leaders Liverpool on February 1, Bournemouth were unbeaten in 11 Premier League games and with the victory over Southampton, they continue their push towards European qualification.
"I don't care about the position right now. I continue with the same spirit. 43 points is a good amount but we need many more," Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola told the BBC.
"We have to focus on the next games. Let's see where we are and later in the season we can look at the standings. It is early.
"We definitely deserve the results we are getting and this is not a given that you are going to perform the same way until the end. If we perform in the same way, we will be there and be close. But it is difficult to stay at this level until the end of the season."
The score could have been more lopsided if Bournemouth, who had seven shots on target to Southampton's four, were more clinical. Ramsdale also denied them in the second-half by making two quick-fire saves to keep out a Christie header and a Antoine Semenyo strike.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru, Editing by Toby Davis, Pritha Sarkar and Alistair Bell)
