never struggled with shot volume<\/a>; however, this season, he is taking shots from much better locations and, importantly, with greater accuracy.<\/p>\nIndeed, his shot conversion rate has risen to 35.3%, compared to just 8.8% in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just slow down things in my head. In previous seasons I\u2019ve always hit the ball too quickly and smashed it without any accuracy. In the off-season I\u2019ve been working on being calm and collected, and placing it in the corner.\u201d \u2013 Antoine Semenyo<\/p>\n
\u201cSemenyo is in a very good spot, he is improving every season. Now he is a player that is making the difference.\u201d \u2013 Andoni Iraola on Antoine Semenyo<\/p>\n
The performances of Semenyo, who now has six goals and three assists in seven matches, have been key to Bournemouth\u2019s excellent start.<\/p>\n
The Cherries are now up to second in the table, having taken 10 points from home fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brighton and Hove Albion, Newcastle United and Fulham.<\/p>\n
They do have some tricky away trips to come after the international break, however:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-03-at-23.58.56.png\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have difficult games after the international break, we play Palace away, Manchester City away, Aston Villa away. It doesn\u2019t get easier but it is good to arrive with a good number of points. I hope we take a breath which the players deserve and we go again.\u201d \u2013 Andoni Iraola<\/p>\n
WHY SENESI WAS SUBBED OFF<\/p>\n
Gameweek 7\u2019s most-bought defender, Marcos Senesi (\u00a34.9m), blanked at the Vitality Stadium, as he was substituted off after 77 minutes.<\/p>\n
At the time of his departure, the Bournemouth centre-half had recorded only seven defensive contributions (DefCons), three below the required number for extra points.<\/p>\n
But what was the reason for his substitution?<\/p>\n
With Bournemouth trailing 1-0, Andoni Iraola shuffled his pack and opted for a more offensive strategy by replacing Senesi with winger Ben Gannon-Doak (\u00a34.9m).<\/p>\n
Just seven minutes later, the Cherries found themselves 2-1 up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are losing, you have to try to change the game. We had to take risks and put on more offensive players and it worked.\u201d \u2013 Andoni Iraola<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, \u00a34.0m defender James Hill was recalled to Iraola\u2019s starting XI in place of Alex Jimenez (\u00a34.5m). Subbed on the hour mark, he even banked four clean sheet points.<\/p>\n
KING \u2018OOP\u2019<\/p>\n
You have to feel for Fulham, who were undone by two exceptional goals from Semenyo and Kluivert.<\/p>\n
In a match that seemed destined to be easily forgotten, Ryan Sessegnon (\u00a35.4m) had previously put the Cottagers ahead when he ran onto a through ball from substitute Samuel Chukwueze (\u00a35.4m) to score.<\/p>\n
However, Fulham had to play without a recognised striker on the south coast, prompting Marco Silva to deploy a 3-4-2-1 formation, with Josh King (\u00a34.5m) playing as a false nine within a fluid front three:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-04-at-01.08.29-619x1024.png\")
<\/p>\n
King once again looked comfortable on the ball until he was substituted on 66 minutes, yet the system seemed to be a work in progress.<\/p>\n
On the lack of a recognised striker in his line-up, Marco Silva said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different scenario for us and it is not ideal at all. The team that we have been building the last three or four seasons with a certain way to play, the number nine has certain types of characteristics. To be without both [Jimenez and Muniz] has never happened before. We try to take the reference from the central defenders and play with a more versatile front line, a more mobile front line.\u201d \u2013 Marco Silva<\/p>\n
As for Joachim Andersen (\u00a34.5m), he banked DefCon points for the sixth match in a row.<\/p>\n
Sasa Lukic (\u00a35.0m), meanwhile, had to be subbed off in the first half due to a suspected muscle injury.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-255-1024x466.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-254.png\")
<\/p>\n
VOTE FOR FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT IN \u2018BEST IN FANTASY FOOTBALL \u2013 ORGANISATION\u2019 HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antoine Semenyo (\u00a37.8m) scored twice and provided an assist as Bournemouth came from behind to beat Fulham on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48993,48994,48995,9860,48996,111,139,69,48997,48998,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-59195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andersen","9":"tag-bournemouth-v-fulham","10":"tag-gameweek-7","11":"tag-king","12":"tag-kluivert","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-semenyo","17":"tag-senesi","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-03-at-23.35.22-1024x473.png\")
SEMENYO \u201cTHE DIFFERENCE\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-03-at-23.41.45-1024x396.png\")
<\/p>\n