AFC Bournemouth 0-2 Spurs

Maddison and Kulusevski off the mark to help us to victory at Bournemouth

We made it back-to-back 2-0 wins in the Premier League as our fine start to life under Ange Postecoglou continued at Bournemouth on Saturday lunchtime.

Having been passed fit to start the clash after an injury concern following our 2-0 win oover Manchester United last Saturday, James Maddison opened the scoring for us at the Vitality Stadium as he stroked home Pape Matar Sarr's incisive through ball on 16 minutes - his maiden Lilywhite strike. Then, after weathering some pressure from the home side at the start of the second half, Dejan Kulusevski got off the mark for the campaign, tapping home after some fine work from Destiny Udogie down the left channel.

On a rain swept afternoon on the south coast, both sides' attacking intent was clear from the off although it took 14 minutes for a clear opportunity to be created - and that fell our way. We were unable to take though as, after doing well to close down Neto's attempted clearance, Maddison was unable to find a way past the goalkeeper when Sonny recycled the ball to him.

Our number 10, though, didn’t have long to wait for his next opportunity though as just two minutes later he was in again – and this time he found the target. After neat build-up on the left, Sarr threaded in Maddison, and he stoked the ball home from 12 yards.

Sarr could have then doubled our lead on 22 minutes. Again, another slick, sweeping move saw us progress from defence to attack in an instant, but the midfielder’s eventual shot was saved by Neto.

While it would be unfair to say we had full control of the clash at the Vitality, it did take Bournemouth 34 minutes to record their first chance of the match – a header from Philip which was easily gathered by Guglielmo Vicario. Our threat, meanwhile, was always present, as we showed two minutes later when a quick break up field saw a Richarlison effort cleared off the line. The forward then headed just wide from a Maddison free-kick.

As the half drew to a close, the game certainly became much more of a contest with the Cherries beginning to flex their muscles in front of goal, launching angled drives into the area while Ryan Christie and Philip came close from range.

The problems caused by the Cherries increased after the break. In the opening minutes of the second half, Philip flashed a ball right across our goal line before Antoine Semenyo curled just wide of the left-hand upright.

We were under pressure and changes were needed, so Ange Postecoglou rung them on the hour mark, and they gave us just the result we needed three minutes later.

Off went Sarr and Richarlison and on came Ivan Perisic and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and both were involved as we doubled our lead. Initially progressing well down the right, Hojbjerg recycled the ball to get us moving down the left where Perisic linked up with Udogie. Getting to the byline, the young full-back then squared across the box for Kulusevski, who tapped in from close range.

Maddison should have then wrapped up all three points when he burst through the Bournemouth backline on 70 minutes, but he dragged his effort across goal and wide of the right-hand post.

The Cherries continued to push for a way back into the game as we reached the final 10 minutes of the game with both Jaidon Anthony and Lewis Cook coming close from range but, if there were for any more goals, it was from a Spurs player they were most likely come.

In the closing stages, both left-sided outlets – Ben Davies and Perisic - sent efforts just off target.

The three points continued our unbeatenstart to the season and, at the time of writing, sent us to the top of the Premier League table.