Bournemouth 2-1 Brighton: Semenyo stars again for Iraola's high-flyers

Antoine Semenyo's sensational start to the Premier League season continued as his goal and assist helped Bournemouth beat Brighton 2-1 at Vitality Stadium.

Semenyo had three goal contributions in three games to start the campaign, and he was involved once again here to help the Cherries to their third consecutive league win. 

Bournemouth's strong start was rewarded in the 18th minute by Alex Scott, who rifled an effort past Bart Verbruggen after good work from Semenyo on the edge of the box.

The Cherries continued to press on after taking the lead, with Evanilson looping a header over the crossbar before Semenyo's strike whistled just wide of the right-hand post.

Brighton improved as the half wore on and manufactured their best chance four minutes before the break, but Djordje Petrovic was equal to Yankuba Minteh's near-post shot.

And the Seagulls hit back three minutes into the second half through Kaoru Mitoma, who nodded Minteh's cross to the back post home from a tight angle.

However, the Cherries restored their lead just after the hour when Jan Paul van Hecke tripped Evanilson inside the box, allowing Semenyo to dispatch the resulting penalty. 

Bournemouth's victory propelled them up to third in the early-season standings, while Brighton's indifferent start to the campaign leaves them down in 12th. 

Data Debrief: Cherries make best ever start as Semenyo continues to impress

Bournemouth now have three straight league victories for the first time since December 2024 after their opening-day defeat away to champions Liverpool, and nine points from their opening four games represents their best ever start to a top-flight campaign.

Semenyo has played a vital role in this, and he has now scored and assisted in the same Premier League match for the first time in his career.

Overall, he has been directly involved in seven goals across his last five league games (five goals, two assists), as many contributions as in his previous 18 appearances.

Despite Brighton getting back on level terms, this was a very inefficient display from them in front of goal, with just two shots on target and an expected goals (xG) total of just 0.62.

Fabian Hurzeler's side have lost two of their last three matches in the Premier League (W1), as many defeats as in their previous nine games in the top-flight (W4 D3).