Soccer Football - Premier League - AFC Bournemouth v Fulham - Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, Britain - December 26, 2023 AFC Bournemouth's Luis Sinisterra scores their third goal past Fulham's Bernd Leno REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
BOURNEMOUTH, England (Reuters) -A resurgent Bournemouth moved into the top half of the Premier League standings with a 3-0 home win over Fulham on Tuesday thanks to goals by Justin Kluivert, Dominic Solanke and Luis Sinisterra.
Andoni Iraola's side were winless in their first nine league games of the season, but the suspended Spaniard watching the contest from the stands was all smiles as they sealed their sixth win in seven matches.
The result moved Bournemouth up to 10th with 25 points from 18 matches while Fulham are 13th following their third straight defeat without scoring.
"Now we are flying. The whole squad, we've got a great team, great spirit," Kluivert told Amazon Prime.
"It's wonderful. We've got to know each other. I'm new, the coach is new. At the beginning we were struggling, we were losing but we've found our feet."
Bournemouth had numerous chances early on, with Fulham's Tosin Adarabioyo denying Kluivert with a lunging block around the half-hour mark.
A minute later, an out-of-position Bernd Leno in Fulham's goal spilled the ball but Solanke's shot was deflected for a corner by Adarabioyo's header.
Bournemouth increased the pressure on Fulham, earning back-to-back corners over the next few minutes, and their efforts finally paid off just before halftime.
Alex Scott took the ball along the halfway line and sprinted right through the Fulham defence to set up Kluivert's shot that was hit directly at Leno, but the German could not hold on to it as the deadlock was broken at Vitality Stadium.
Bournemouth doubled their lead after the hour-mark when Joao Palhinha's foul on Antonie Semenyo gave the home side a rare penalty, their first in nearly 20 months, which Solanke converted for his 12th league goal of the season.
Solanke moved level with Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in the league's scoring charts, two behind top scorer Erling Haaland of Manchester City.
With Fulham down and out, second-half substitute Sinisterra put the cherry on top when he curled in their third goal in stoppage time to seal the win.
"Disappointing result, really disappointing second half, too. Bournemouth deserved it," Fulham manager Marco Silva said.
"We have to be more aggressive... the penalty was not necessary. After that we didn’t create chances. We didn't punish them.
"When you concede goals the way we did, we don't deserve to get any points from the game," he added.
Bournemouth visit Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday while Fulham host Arsenal.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond and Christian Radnedge)
