Bournemouth 1-0 Crystal Palace: Justin Kluivert scores late winner as Cherries climb above Chelsea… with Eagles now winless in four Premier League games

Ultimately, not even a mysterious illness could stop Antoine Semenyo from being Bournemouth’s magic man.

The Cherries’ talisman was named on the bench before pre-match rumors suggested he had come into contact with a bug that had swept through the Bournemouth camp and been removed from the squad at the weekend.

Cue turns of heads and looks of surprise as Semenyo trotted out of the tunnel to take his place among the substitutes before making a second-half cameo and setting up Justin Kluivert to score the winner.

And oh, how this game needed it. Even the purists would have had trouble with this for so long.

On a bitter night on the south coast, under howling winds and pouring rain, these two mid-table Premier League teams played a match that epitomized how little they have to fight.

Antoine Semenyo recovered from a mysterious illness and provided a great assist for Kluivert’s winner

Music from the Great Escape greeted the teams as they took to the pitch at the Vitality Stadium and yet, in the first week of April, none of these clubs feel like they will be deterred by such end-of-season leftovers.

Relegation is too far in the rear-view mirror, even for Palace now under Oliver Glasner with points deductions flying around, and Europe is a speck in the distance.

The only sense of mystery before the match was with Semenyo, who was named to the bench and then went missing through illness, only to emerge from the tunnel for the warm-up.

That’s as exciting as it got for almost half an hour under the howling wind and pouring rain on a bitter night on the south coast, because the best they could muster was the timid efforts on both sides of Jean-Philippe Mateta and Phillip Billing.

Eventually the game broke open and Billing tried his luck again with a pair of free kicks, but he shot one straight at the keeper and the other against the wall.

He also saw a close-range header tipped over the crossbar by Dean Henderson in the Palace goal.

Billing, once again at the center of it, fired home the resulting corner, but Lloyd Kelly could only head wide.

Eberechi Eze thought he was the one who had brought the game to life when he scored and danced his way into the Palace fans on the stroke of half-time, but as always VAR was there to spoil the fun when Mateta’s heel was struck. just offside in the build-up.

Semenyo’s mysterious illness had subsided enough to allow him to come on at half-time as Andoni Iraola sought inspiration from the striker who had scored four times in his previous six games, including the equalizer and winner in that remarkable comeback from the 3-0 defeat against Luton here. last month.

In the end, that’s exactly what he got. With ten minutes to go, he bullied his full-back down Bournemouth’s left and pulled the ball back for fellow substitute Justin Kluivert to score the winner.

The hosts held their breath at the death when Jeffrey Schlupp went down in the penalty area under a challenge from Cook. For once, the VAR has chosen not to get involved.