Dominic Solanke finally ended his Premier League goal drought for Bournemouth as he scored twice in a 4-1 win over ten-man Leicester on Sunday.
In his 39th league appearance since joining the Cherries for £19m from Liverpool in January 2019, the striker netted what could be a crucial brace in the Cherries’ survival bid.
The defeat also damages Leicester’ bid for Champions League football – the Foxes will now drop out of the top four if Manchester United beat Southampton on Monday.
With relegation rivals Aston Villa, Watford and West Ham all winning on the weekend, there was a feeling Bournemouth had to pick up a first victory since the Premier League restart against Leicester.
It had looked set to be another miserable day for Eddie Howe’s men when Jamie Vardy opened the scoring after calamitous defending from the hosts.
Dan Gosling cheaply lost possession in the middle of the park as Kelechi Iheanacho’s was played through on goal and his dink was going wide before Lloyd Kelly inadvertently cleared the ball into Vardy’s path.
And the 33-year-old gleefully bundled home his 23rd Premier League goal of the season to take him three clear of Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the scoring charts.
Bournemouth seemed devoid of ideas until Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel’s goal kick cannoned off Wilfred Ndidi and allowed Callum Wilson to bear down on goal.
But he was taken down by Ndidi, who conceded a penalty, which was converted by half-time substitute Junior Stanislas in the 66th minute.
And less than a minute later, Bournemouth took the lead through Solanke, whose shot squirmed under Schmeichel.
To make matters worse for Leicester, they were reduced to 10 men just seconds after the second strike when Caglar Soyuncu kicked out at Wilson.
Bournemouth killed the game as Stanislas’ cross was deflected in by Leicester defender Jonny Evans in the 83rd minute.
Solanke then completed his brace four minutes later when he capitalised on a poor Christian Fuchs pass.
Bournemouth are three points from safety with as many games to go.
The only sour note for the Cherries was a serious-looking injury to Nathan Ake, which forced him off in the first half.
The Netherlands international was seen on crutches afterwards.
