There were 20 minutes gone and you could barely see the halfway line. Storm Amy was throwing everything at the Vitality Stadium, the kind of night where football becomes a lottery — and somehow, Bournemouth found the winning ticket. Fulham had struck first, Ryan Sessegnon latching onto a through ball and coolly clipping over Djordje Petrovic, and for a long stretch this looked like it would drift into one of those instantly forgettable Friday-night slogs.
Then the game caught fire. Antoine Semenyo picked the ball up wide on the left, wriggled along the byeline and squeezed a shot through Bernd Leno's legs from an angle most forwards wouldn't even attempt. With twenty to play, substitute Justin Kluivert collected the ball in the centre circle, charged forward like he'd seen a gap nobody else had, and unleashed an unstoppable strike from 25 yards. Deep into stoppage time, Semenyo killed Fulham's comeback hopes stone dead, finishing off a counter-attack for his second of the night.
The 3-1 win gave Bournemouth their best-ever start to a Premier League season — 14 points from seven games — and lifted Andoni Iraola's men to second, a point behind Liverpool. "It was a strange game, especially in the first half," Iraola admitted afterwards. "It was difficult for both teams because it is raining, it is windy. We had to risk, and I will give credit to the players because we scored goals. Semenyo is in a very good spot... he is improving every season. Now he is a player that is making the difference."
