It was all eyes on the South coast this afternoon as the Cherries welcomed Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest.
Dyche was appointed as manager on Tuesday and led Forest to their first win in eleven games as they beat Porto FC 2-0 in the Europa League.
With Evanilson still injured, Junior Kroupi led the line for Bournemouth again after his impressive brace against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Andoni Iraola’s side started as fast as always and Marcus Tavenier’s shot was pushed out for a corner by Matz Sels inside two minutes.
The Cherries piled on the pressure and built themselves several good chances in the opening exchanges.
An off-the-ball scuffle between Justin Kluivert and Douglas Luiz earned them both early yellow cards and tensions continued to rise minutes later during a Forest corner.
The Cherries then broke the deadlock in spectacular fashion 25 minutes in, Marcus Tavernier’s corner swinging all the way past Sels and into the goalkeeper’s net.
The Nottingham Forest team weren’t happy as they were convinced the corner should not have been given as it appeared to come off Tavernier’s boot.
Alex Scott very nearly made it two just ten minutes later but the low, outstretched save from Selz denied him.
Junior Kroupi was on target yet again to double the Cherries lead in the 40th minute, picking the ball up near the halfway line and driving forward before curling his shot into the bottom left corner.
Sean Dyche, unhappy with the referee and letting him know, picked up a yellow card himself which was met by chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ from the Bournemouth crowd.
As the half time whistle blew, the Cherries were strongly in the drivers seat and took their two goal lead with them.
Taiwo Awoniyi, Omari Hutchinson and Ryan Yates all came on at half time to replace Igor Jesus, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Douglas Luiz.
As the second half began Forest came out looking stronger, Dyche's three substitution were seemingly helping them.
The game grew more competitive as the half progressed, Awoniyi’s introduction allowed the visitors to play differently to the first half and gave them more options.
Morgan Gibbs-White nearly got a goal back for Forest with a long curling effort however Dorde Petrovic was there to deny him with a fine save.
As the Dorset rain fell down, the Cherries stood strong and saw out their lead, making it seven games unbeaten.
The three points moved Iraola’s side to second in the league table and travel to Manchester City next Sunday.
Cherries Lineup: Petrovic, Truffert, Milosavljevic, Senesi, Jimenez, Scott (Christie, 80), Adams, Tavernier (Cook, 90), Kluivert (Brooks, 69), Semenyo (Ünal. 90), Kroupi Jr (Adli, 69)
Goalscorers: Marcus Tavernier (1-0), Eli Junior Kroupi (2-0)