Liverpool Win 1-0 at Bournemouth as Isak Downs Andoni Iraola's Old Club

Liverpool needed until the second half to find a way past a Bournemouth side that started the brighter of the two, but Alexander Isak's 57th-minute strike was enough to make it 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday. It was a result that mattered more than it looked: Liverpool remain unbeaten in the Premier League this season, and Andoni Iraola got the better of the club he managed for two and a half years before taking the Anfield job.

Bournemouth start the better side

For the first 25 minutes it was Bournemouth pushing forward, not Liverpool defending a lead. Marco Rose's side worked the ball into dangerous areas repeatedly, and their best chance came on 18 minutes, when Evanilson got across his marker to flick a near-post header goalwards — only for Alisson to react quickly and turn it behind. It was the kind of save that keeps a scoreline goalless rather than one that changes a game outright, but it mattered: Bournemouth never created a clearer opening all afternoon.

One cross, one finish

Liverpool grew into the game as the half wore on, and the goal that separated the sides came from exactly the kind of move that had been missing before it. Cody Gakpo drove at the Bournemouth back line down the left, got to the byline and picked out Isak at the back post, and the striker did not need a second invitation. It was a simple finish to a well-worked chance, and it was enough to settle a game that neither side had fully controlled.

"I'm obviously happy with the result. We weren't at the level we wanted in the first part of the game, but we found a way to win it in the end."

— Andoni Iraola, Liverpool head coach, on returning to his former club

"We couldn't see that one team deserved to win this. We conceded an easy goal in a game where we created enough to at least take something from it."

— Marco Rose, Bournemouth head coach

Liverpool's unbeaten run holds

The win extends a run that had already stood out before kick-off. Liverpool went into the round without a league defeat in four matches — a draw at Newcastle, a home draw with Nottingham Forest, a 2-0 win at Ipswich Town and a goalless draw with Fulham — and had also beaten Atlético Madrid 2-1 in the Champions League in midweek before this trip to the south coast. Five wins, three draws and no losses across all competitions in their last six games is a genuinely strong run, and Sunday's win keeps it intact heading into the international break. Bournemouth, by contrast, are still searching for a first win of the season: this was their fourth draw or worse in five matches, following a defeat to Manchester City and draws with Everton, Newcastle and Brentford.

What the result changes

Liverpool went into the weekend eighth in the table on 6 points from four games; the win takes them to 9 points from five, with the rest of the round still to be played out around them. Bournemouth stay on 3 points from what is now five matches, without a win, in a bottom half of the table that is starting to look uncomfortably crowded this early in the season.

A record fee still settling in

Isak arrived at Anfield from Newcastle for a British transfer record fee, reported at £125m, after a deadline-day move that took most of the summer to complete. Sunday's goal was the kind of low-key, instinctive finish a club paying that much for a striker is banking on becoming routine — not a moment of magic, just being in the right place when Gakpo picked out the back post.

Match stats

Line-ups

Marco Rose's Bournemouth XI:

• D. Petrovic (GK)
• A. Smith (c), J. Hill, A. Silva, A. Truffert
• T. Adams, A. Scott, R. Simplício Rocha
• R. Christie, M. Tavernier, Evanilson

Andoni Iraola's Liverpool XI:

• A. Becker (GK)
• R. Araújo, J. Jacquet, V. van Dijk (c), M. Kerkez
• D. Szoboszlai, A. Mac Allister
• C. Gakpo, F. Wirtz, B. Barcola, A. Isak