The Cherries may have lost just one of their last 13 PL outings, but any notion that the visit of relegation threatened Wolves would be a routine victory was quickly dismissed.
An encouraging start from Vitor Pereira’s side saw Nélson Semedo drive into the box and strike against the post, with Kepa Arrizabalaga performing an exquisite reactive save to deny Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s well-struck rebound attempt.
With Wolves enjoying the better of the early exchanges in bright sunshine on the south coast, Kepa was again required to be alert to push away Matheus Cunha’s long-range attempt.
Bournemouth’s afternoon took a turn for the worse on the half hour, when Illia Zabarnyi’s mistimed challenge was upgraded to straight red upon review and minutes later, Cunha found himself completely unmarked, eight yards from goal, to fire Wolves in front.
The Cherries attempted to press forward in response to trailing, but Wolves utilised their man advantage to see out the duration of an increasingly scrappy opening half.
Both sides enjoyed attacking sequences after the restart, but to no avail, with Wolves particularly guilty of squandering a gilt-edged opportunity when Marshall Munetsi steered what seemed a simple finish wide of the target from close range.
With Bournemouth uncharacteristically lacking their usual offensive dynamism that has served them so well this campaign, the game slipped away from them in the second period as they found themselves unable to craft out an equaliser against a resilient Wolves outfit, who remain unbeaten at the Vitality Stadium in the PL (5 matches).
Wolves return home galvanised by their fourth PL victory under Vitor Pereira, which crucially moves them five points clear of the bottom three.
Meanwhile, the result confirms a rare off-day for high-flying Bournemouth, whose European hopes remain very much on track despite defeat.