Howe hails top three players, explains two moves and pays tribute to "ultimate" pro

It wasn't pretty at Bournemouth in Sunday's 0-0 draw, but it was another clean sheet and strong defensive display.

Goals will have to come soon if we want to start winning games regularly to get ourselves up the table, however, as we have now scored just once across four of our opening five games against Aston Villa, Leeds, Wolves and Bournemouth.

Eddie Howe has been discussing the clean sheets, two Mags who didn't feature and the return of our former skipper in his post-match presser, starting with some praise for one of our new recruits.

Howe hails defensive trio

Making his first start in the Premier League, and deputising for the injured Fabian Schar, summer signing Malick Thiaw put in a solid performance on the right side of a back three.

And Howe felt certainly showed up and delivered, praising not only his performance but the display of fellow centre-backs Sven Botman and Dan Burn as all three put in standout display to keep another clean sheet:

“Yeah not just Malick, although he did play well, but Malick, Sven, Dan, I thought they all really contributed to a very good defensive display.”

There were calls for the former AC Milan star to be sent off late in the second half for a second yellow card, before being promptly (and wisely) subbed off when no action was taken by the referee. On this, Howe added:

“I took him off really because he was fatiguing. And he was close to the bench, telling us he was tired, and we had a couple of players in that same position.”

On Joelinton and Bruno absence

With neither Joelinton nor Bruno Guimaraes getting any game time at Bournemouth, less than 72 hours after our match against the Spanish champions, it does hint that Howe is taking extra care of his key players; a big lesson learned after the injury crisis suffered during our last Champions League campaign.

Discussing their absence and the need to manage minutes in the midst of a busy schedule, Howe said:

“Joelinton we have to really protect from injury. He's just back. Bruno is different but the two who played today did really well.”

“From previous experience, these third games in a week are difficult for all players. Look at Sandro Tonali, Dan Burn and Tino Livramento, the outfield players who went again, that was an incredible shift from them.”

“We knew Thursday took a lot out of us. It was such a tough game, you look at the numbers from that game, certain players hit a tremendous amount of sprint distance and high-speed distance, days later you’re coming here: one of the most intense games in the Premier League, that’s why we made wholesale changes to the entire group.”

“I was really pleased with how our squad adapted to that, and I thought we gave a good performance today.”

On Jamaal Lascelles’ return to Premier League action

After a tough year and a half recovering from an ACL injury, it was a nice sight to see Lascelles called upon once again by Howe in the closing stages for his first Premier League appearance since 2023/24:

Discussing his return, Howe revealed

“Yeah delighted because that’s a tricky ten minutes to come into.”

“I’ve been there as a defender, horrible, but he came in and looked like he hadn’t been away.

"I have to give Jamaal great credit for how he trains and how he conducts himself, he’s the ultimate professional, so I’m delighted for him personally.”