PL games involving Wolves had featured more goals (48) than any other side this season ahead of the visit of Gary O’Neil’s former side Bournemouth. The Cherries – looking to pick themselves up following successive defeats – were gifted the perfect opportunity to rediscover their form when Toti Gomes lunged in on Evanilson inside the box with barely a minute on the clock.
Kluivert coolly dispatched from 12 yards as Bournemouth gratefully capitalised, but their lead proved short-lived. It took Wolves no less than 2 minutes and 16 seconds to fashion out a reply, with Jørgen Strand Larsen nodding home Matheus Cunha’s precision delivery just five minutes into the contest.
An end-to-end encounter quickly ensued and Bournemouth’s lead was soon restored when a sweeping attack culminated with Marcus Tavernier slipping a pass into the path of advancing left-back Milos Kerkez, who rifled into the roof of the net on eight minutes.
Worse was to follow for Wolves when José Sá unintentionally kicked Evanilson to award the Cherries their second penalty of the afternoon. Kluivert was again the executioner, this time delivering a powerfully-struck finish into the bottom-left corner. Both teams continued to freely attack at will but the Wolves defence looked particularly error-prone as Kluivert and Evanilson buzzed around the final third.
Bournemouth continued to press forward in the second period whilst Wolves struggled to gain momentum. Even after the hosts had momentarily halved the deficit, disaster again quickly followed.
Within two minutes of Strand Larsen clinically pouncing on a rare attack for the hosts, Sá again collided with Evanilson inside the goalmouth, allowing Kluivert to claim a unique hat-trick of penalties and restore the Cherries’ two-goal advantage.
The result is a setback for O’Neil’s side, who slide back into the bottom three with their league-worst defensive record (32 goals against) threatening their PL status. Wolves remains a happy hunting ground for Bournemouth, however, who notch a third-consecutive PL victory at Molineux as Andoni Iraola steers his team towards the top half.