Cherries Pop the Foxes

Kinda refreshing to see truth in advertising.

Bournemouth's home digs are known as Vitality Stadium, and the Cherries offered up a healthy dose of it in their 4-2 triumph over Leicester City.

So much is made of crucial Premiership points in April and May, but basic math still maintains that points right now are just as important.

That's clearly reassuring to Bournemouth. What's even more, the early returns of a 3-1-1 record being good for first place is quite a morale boost for the Cherries and their supporters.

 

It was actually Leicester who came roaring outta the gate in this one, looking for all the world like they'd be the masters of Vitality.

But no.

While they were throwing themselves forward in the first quarter-hour, Bournemouth was starting to see ample space for a counterattack, and in the 19th, that's exactly what happened.

Josh King drove forward and assisted Ryan Fraser:

 

Asmir Begović did a decent job of denying a Leicester equalizer.

• First, he stopped Jamie Vardy, who was point-blank with the keeper, and a moment later,
• James Maddison hit the crossbar, bu it was because Begović got a slight piece of it:

 

Coulda been the Foxes' first clue it wasn't gonna be their day.

The second one came in the 37th when Callum Wilson assisted Fraser, who calmly beat Kasper Schmeichel to make it 2-0 for the homeys with him having scored both goals:

 

Proving good times can last as long as people do on the day, just three minutes later, Ricardo Pereira handed the ball inside of the Leicester’s area.

Josh King stepped up and fired home to make it 3-0 with the intermission still ahead of them:

 

After the break, Leicester started quickly once more, but their momentum was dulled when Wes Morgan was sent off due to a second yellow.

 

Bournemouth took numerical advantage and scored their fourth.

This time, Fraser was the architect. Dude drove forward and assisted Adam Smith, who slotted home:

 

And that took the match to the lovely parting gift stage.

Two, in fact.

Pereira, who gave away a penalty to the Cherries, redeemed himself when he created a penalty situation for the Foxes, as well.

Maddison did the honors:

 

Just one minute later, Kelechi Iheanacho’s cross found Marc Albrighton, who beat Begović with a firm header:

 

On the Vitality scale, the final score was an accurate reflection of the action.

And a buncha happy Cherries can now spend the next week basking in fifth place.