AFC Bournemouth handed Tottenham Hotspur their first defeat of the 2025/2026 Premier League season on Saturday afternoon at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Cherries defeated Spurs by a goal to nil away from home, becoming the first side to score against Thomas Frank’s outfit in England’s top flight.
Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth have been one of the most impressive sides at the start of the new EPL campaign, earning six points from a possible nine in their opening three fixtures, only suffering defeat to Liverpool on the opening day of the season.
This Tottenham vs Bournemouth post-match tactical analysis looks at Andoni Iraola Bournemouth tactics, which defeated Thomas Frank’s Spurs on Saturday.
Our Premier League analysis examines the successful Bournemouth style of play in possession, which generated 1.63 xG for the Cherries in North London on Saturday, as well as the Andoni Iraola out-of-possession tactics, which limited Spurs to just five shots totalling 0.35 xG on their home turf.
Tottenham Hotspur Vs Bournemouth Lineups & Formations
Thomas Frank tactically set the home side up in a 4-2-3-1 formation for this game.
Guglielmo Vicario lined up in goal behind a back four consisting of Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence (from right to left).
Rodrigo Bentancur and João Palhinha played as Spurs’ double pivots at the base of midfield behind Pape Matar Sarr, who lined up as a ‘10’, Mohammed Kudus on the right wing, and Brennan Johnson on the left wing.
Meanwhile, Richarlison led the line for Tottenham up front.
Frank made a total of four substitutions over the course of the game.
In the 54th minute, they made a double change, bringing on Wilson Odobert and Lucas Bergvall for Brennan Johnson and João Palhinha.
Then, just after 70 minutes, Pedro Porro made way for Destiny Udogie, while Mathys Tel came on for Sarr in the 76th minute.
As for the visitors, Iraola also set up his team from the south coast in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
Djordje Petrovic started in goal for the Cherries behind Adam Smith, Bafodé Diakité, Marcos Senesi and Adrien Truffert (right to left).
Tyler Adams and Alex Scott were Bournemouth’s central midfield duo, playing behind Marcus Tavernier as a ‘10’, David Brooks on the right wing and Antoine Semenyo on the left wing.
Evanilson carried out centre-forward duties for the Cherries.
Iraola made a total of five substitutions before the full-time whistle was blown on Saturday.
In the 26th minute, Bournemouth right-back Adam Smith was taken off, with James Hill coming on in his place.
Then, just after the hour mark, Scott and Brooks made way for Ryan Christie and Amine Adli.
Lastly, 10 minutes from the end of the game, Bournemouth took off goalscorer Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier, bringing Eli Junior Kroupi and Justin Kluivert off the bench to take their place and see out the Cherries’ victory.
Bournemouth In-Possession Tactics Vs Tottenham Hotspur: Positioning & Movement
Andoni Iraola’s side retained just 38.38% of the ball possession in Saturday’s game.
Still, they used the ball far more effectively than their opponents, creating four times as many shots, vastly superior xG, and, most importantly, the only goal of the game.
The primary keys to the Cherries’ on-the-ball success on Saturday were their intelligent positioning and off-the-ball movement.
All progressive passing connections to have seen at least three progressive passes moving from one of these players to the other is shown in Figure 2.
All three connections shown on the above map went one way; two of the three saw in-form Antoine Semenyo on the receiving end of the ball.
Senesi played five progressive passes to Semenyo, two more than goalkeeper Petrovic sent Semenyo’s way.
The other link highlighted on our map is left-back Truffert to Evanilson, which occurred three times.
We’re bringing up this map, in particular, because it was evident from our viewing of the game that one of Bournemouth’s most prominent and most successful tactics in this game was to send direct balls towards Semenyo on the left wing, either trying to release him in behind the Spurs backline or finding him with a ball to feet as he dropped short.
This caused chaos in Spurs’ backline, resulting in plenty of involvement from Semenyo and generating goalscoring chances for the Cherries.
Above, we see Bournemouth’s build-up shape.
The two centre-backs split closely on either side, just ahead of the goalkeeper; the full-backs pushed on slightly to be in line with the central midfielders.
However, they kept all six outfielders mentioned quite deep, forcing Spurs to commit bodies high, especially once Bournemouth had gone ahead and Frank’s side were chasing the game.
One consequence was that Rodrigo Bentancur was dragged up from a double pivot alongside the ‘10’, Sarr.
This helped Spurs apply more pressure on Bournemouth’s deeper players.
However, Bournemouth intended to send the ball into their forwards quite fast, negating the positives of Bentancur’s movement for Spurs.
It ultimately left the North London side with a weakened midfield that Bournemouth could target and exploit with their direct play.
Here, Pedro Porro gets to the long ball, preventing Semenyo from being released in behind the Spurs backline.
However, the right-back can only head it into midfield, where Bournemouth have more of a presence than Spurs at this moment.
Note how much of a gap has appeared between Spurs backline and their high midfield.
A gulf was created as a result of Bournemouth’s deep build-up, which dragged Tottenham players high, and their threat in behind also forced the backline deeper.
The Cherries effectively exploited the space in midfield, which was created by their intelligent positioning and movement throughout the pitch, on Saturday.
As this passage of play continues for a few more seconds, we see Bournemouth consolidate possession on the left wing.
Truffert, Evanilson, Semenyo, and Scott all position themselves out wide to overload Spurs on that wing, while Adams, Senesi, and Tavernier are supporting not too far away.
Bournemouth overloaded the left wing, particularly throughout the day on Saturday, and created numerous chances through that part of the pitch due to the intelligent movement and quality passes they executed.
Brooks was still out wide on the right, offering an opportunity to switch, but the Cherries had so much joy breaking Spurs down on the left that they didn’t use this option as much.
In the second half, Senesi lines up a long ball, again targeting space behind Spurs backline.
The two willing runners the centre-back is aiming for here are Tavernier and Semenyo.
They’re given a lot of space to target thanks to Evanilson’s decision to drop off in between the lines, which drags Spurs’ right centre-back Romero forward.
Iraola’s side did brilliantly with their movement and countermovement in the forward line.
They constantly offered depth through the likes of Tavernier and Semenyo.
At the same time, Evanilson and sometimes Semenyo would also offer a short passing option by dropping off to receive to feet in between the lines if that were a more desirable choice for the passer.
The forwards provided their deeper teammates with numerous options throughout the game, causing the Spurs defenders considerable headaches.
Again, Romero is forced out of the backline here because Bentancur has been drawn high, creating another instance of the aforementioned gulf in Spurs’ midfield.
Bournemouth’s main strength was in their long balls forward.
It was the intelligent movement and positioning of their players all around the pitch that made those long balls so effective.
Here, Diakité finds Tavernier as the ‘10’ drops off while Bournemouth build out from the back.
The centre-back had passing options on either side of him, but Tavernier provided the best option as he dropped away from the forward line and into the midfield.
The Cherries string together a neat combination once Tavernier receives, progressing into the final third.
This highlights the value of the option to feet which Bournemouth’s attackers routinely provided through intelligent, proactive movement.
Bournemouth Out-Of-Possession Tactics Vs Tottenham Hotspur: Forcing Spurs Wide Or Long
Contrast Figure 7 with Figure 8 below.
Tottenham have a similar setup to Bournemouth here, but the key ingredient is missing: the player at the very tip of this wide diamond.
Tavernier was that player for Bournemouth in Figure 7, but Spurs had no one performing that role in Figure 8.
This exemplifies one of the key differences between the two sides on Saturday: Bournemouth’s attackers provided constant off-the-ball movement in intelligent areas, while Spurs were more static and slower to get into the right positions.
We can see Bentancur on his way to the half-space to provide that option, but it’s too slow.
The pass goes to Spence, who can be pressed far more easily due to his positioning at the sideline than a player in the half-space, like Tavernier in Figure 7, would be.
Bournemouth succeeded in their plan of filtering Spurs build-up through Van de Ven and out to the left wing throughout Saturday’s game.
Take a look at Figure 9, for instance.
Tavernier marks Palhinha, who doesn’t offer much in possession anyway, while Evanilson completely blocks off the pass to Romero from goalkeeper Vicario.
The pass to Van de Ven is open, however, and that’s what Vicario ultimately goes for.
Now, Bournemouth can comfortably increase their pressing intensity on Van de Ven.
They keep the other passing options, like Romero and Palhinha, cut off, while leaving the passing option to Spence viable but dangerous due to the right-back’s wide positioning right on the touchline and Brooks’ close proximity.
Van de Ven opts to go long, sending the ball towards Richarlison.
Richarlison is not a significant aerial threat.
Last season, he ranked below average among strikers in the top five leagues for aerial duel win %, so leaving a long option to the Brazilian as Van de Ven’s best option, not just on this occasion but several times throughout this contest, put the odds firmly in Bournemouth’s favour that they’d be able to win possession back from Tottenham quite quickly.
Bournemouth’s defenders each had excellent individual performances on Saturday.
Credit should go to Truffert for handling Kudus very effectively.
Truffert engaged in the most defensive duels of any player on the pitch (a whopping 19), winning 74%.
Meanwhile, his direct opponent, Kudus, had the most offensive duels for Spurs (25), winning just 37.5%.
Senesi won all eight of his defensive duels, while also making the most interceptions (eight) of any Bournemouth player.
Only Spurs ‘keeper Vicario made more.
Senesi and Diakité stayed touch tight to Richarlison throughout the game, giving the Spurs forward no space at all.
They dealt with him well aerially and in ground duels, using their physicality and closing him down immediately on reception.
This worked wonders for Bournemouth, resulting in their clean sheet at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Conclusion
To conclude this tactical analysis, Bournemouth completely outplayed Tottenham on Saturday despite ending the game with just over a third of the ball possession.
Their performance was a masterclass in maximising time on the ball in a game where you’ll see much less of it.
They beautifully highlighted their strengths and exposed Spurs weaknesses through their off-the-ball movement and intelligent positioning all around the pitch in possession, as well as their well-coordinated press off the ball.
They constantly put themselves in advantageous situations against a strong Tottenham side.
