Newcastle fail to intimidate Bournemouth as Cherries run riot at St James' Park
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Standing well over six feet tall and with short sleeves and short shorts to stress his muscularity, Joelinton looks every inch a tough guy. And Justin Kluivert, slight of frame, certainly felt the full, illegal force of the Newcastle United midfielder just before half-time.
But if Joelinton, St James’ Park and a Newcastle United team on a roll thought they could intimidate Kluivert and his team-mates, they were badly, badly mistaken. Momentarily, Kluivert went for Joelinton’s throat in response - just as Bournemouth came to town and went for the Newcastle throat.
Andoni Iraola and his team are no respecters of reputation or size, that is for sure. This was supposed to be about Newcastle setting records, about ten wins on the spin, about Alexander Isak. Not about injury-ravaged Bournemouth, not about a team shorn of conventional strikers, not about Kluivert. But Iraola is a manager who does not follow the scripts, his team having already beaten Arsenal and Manchester City this season.
And the late strikes from Kluivert, to complete his treble, and from Milos Kerkez gave the scoreline an emphatic look that Bournemouth’s performance thoroughly deserved. They were in control of this contest from the moment Kluivert struck his first of two early on. If nothing else, the sweetly-worked and sweetly-struck opener was the least Bournemouth fans deserved for sacrificing a decent night’s sleep in order to get to St James’ Park.
