To celebrate him becoming the first Bournemouth player to score in five consecutive games, the official Premier League account uploaded a video of Evanilson’s goals.
If you happened to watch this, you may have noticed something – at least three, possibly four, come from goalkeeper howlers.
We are still over a month away from Christmas and yet the league’s shot-stoppers appeared to have decided that Evanilson’s presents were coming early.
Evanilson is FLYING 🌟
He is the first @AFCBournemouth player to score in five successive Premier League matches 🇧🇷🍒 https://t.co/oqcN7P2Yvh
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 8, 2026
After scoring from a corner against Chelsea, the second in the run came against Sunderland and to be fair to Robin Roefs, this one is more on Omar Alderete, who does not look as he plays a back pass on the halfway line.
Evanilson has the whole half to himself to run onto the under-hit pass but even still, Roefs is rooted rather than coming out to close him down and force him into a decision.
Given all the time in the world, Evanilson does a stepover, makes his way round the keeper and rolls it into the net.
The Brazilian’s next goal came against Manchester United. A Bournemouth punt should really have been cleared by Senne Lammens, who charges out of his goal only to completely miss the ball as Evanilson flicks it past him. A generous person may say that the particularly strong winds of that weekend caused the ball to move slower than Lammens was expecting. A more realistic person would say he should have got there anyway.
Evanilson seemingly had no problem with said wind as he finished with a needlessly good hit into the far side of the net.
From Evanilson’s fourth in a row, the goalkeepers take the generosity up to another level.
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Leeds’ James Trafford rolled the ball right to Justin Kluivert, who had the presence of mind to square it to an unmarked Evanilson for him to roll it into the empty net.
Then last weekend, Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton took far too long on the ball, allowing Evanilson to tackle him and produce a no-look finish into an empty net to make it five in a row.
Evanilson’s finishing stats reflect just how easy he’s had it of late. If you look at his xGOT – which is the measurement of how likely an on-target shot would result in a goal – his goals against Sunderland, Leeds and Ipswich are all registered at 0.99. The United strike is only marginally worse at 0.95. Even the Chelsea effort, which came from a corner, was 0.58.
In comparison, Alexander Isak’s goal against Crystal Palace at the weekend had an xGOT of 0.27.
As George W Bush once said “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again”, and yet Premier League keepers are ignoring this sage advice and keep getting fooled. Or are they?
Ruling out keepers feeling the Christmas spirit a little early as an explanation, the answer actually lies in the way Evanilson and Bournemouth play.
Opta defines ‘start distance’ as the average distance (in meters) from a team’s own goal where their open-play sequences begin; in simple terms: where do they win the ball back? On that metric, the Cherries are fourth best in the league, starting an average of 43.5m from their own goal-line with the halfway line at around 68m.
What is even more relevant is the number of high turnovers when 40m or closer to the opposition goal. Bournemouth are second in that regard, level with Spurs on 93 and only behind Brighton’s 106. What makes Bournemouth so interesting is that of those teams at the top, their high press results in shots on goal far more often.
An astonishing 21.5% of Bournemouth’s high turnovers result in having them have a shot whereas Brighton and Spurs are down at 15% and 12.9%. Everton and Ipswich top the list for % of high turnovers that end in goals but their season xG totals of 13.82 and 13.38, compared to Bournemouth’s 18.17, reflects the quality of chances.
It’s not just Evanilson leading this press. Marcus Tavernier, who plays on the left of the attacking front three, has won possession 53 times this season – the seventh most of any player in the league. The six above him are central midfielders and Lewis Hall, a full-back.
As for Evanilson, he is the leader in Premier League strikers for defensive contributions this season having made 65; Erling Haaland by comparison has 32.
Looking at the numbers, it’s easy to make a conclusion: Bournemouth press until you are forced to make a mistake, but unlike some teams who run aimlessly, Bournemouth press with purpose.
Against Sunderland, Bournemouth won the ball back five times in the Black Cats’ defensive third. Kevin Danso’s red card prompted a change of formation rather than a substitution from Regis Le Bris and simply nobody followed the run of Evanilson.
Against Manchester United, Evanilson capitalised on the lack of mobility from Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez. A clearance/pass from Lewis Cook was not dealt with by either centre back with Maguire instead pointing to the ball for Lammens to come and claim. Evanilson said thank you very much and scored.
Before that, Evanilson won the ball back in the United box after Ayden Heaven made a mistake. Had it not been for the offside flag, Evanilson’s goal would have stood.
These two results brought an end to Marco Rose’s winless streak and by the end of October, they looked full of confidence.
They faced Leeds at home to end the month and the visitors actually had more of the ball, but that seemed more by design than because the Cherries could not keep hold of it. They won the ball back six times in Leeds’ final third and the effect Bournemouth’s ultra-aggressive press has on teams is best visualised in the opening goal.
Evanilson and Rayan look like 100m sprinters waiting for the starting gun as Leeds get ready to take a goal-kick. Tarik Muharemovic rolls the ball to James Trafford, a common way to take goal kicks in the modern era, but instead of running directly at the ball, Evanilson and Rayan are clever with where they press. Evanilson moves to the left to close off one passing avenue for Trafford down to Nico Elvedi. Rayan has moved to cover Gabriel Gudmundsson.
What Bournemouth do is present the opportunity for Trafford to pass it to Ao Tanaka, but when he does, the Leeds keeper falls into the Cherries’ trap. Kluivert has read it and starts running before Trafford kicks it meaning he can nip ahead of Tanaka who is caught on his heels. Evanilson, who was just a second ago was a player Elvedi was trying to avoid, is now free from any defender.
The Brazilian has time to take a touch and finish into the empty net.
It’s a similar story for his goal against Ipswich. The Suffolk side like to play out from the back, especially at home, and in the opening minutes, centre-back Dara O’Shea has moved across to the touchline so that Leif Davis can move down the flank.
O’Shea passes the ball back to Christian Walton, who looks up and sees his O’Shea option closed off by Kluivert. His middle option in Exequiel Palacios is blocked by Evanilson and his other option of Issa Diop is blocked off by Tavernier.
Walton turns his body to pass to Diop but sees he is blocked off at which point Evanilson is only a few metres away from him, and the Ipswich keeper probably hears the Jaws theme in his head. The left-footed Walton can’t generate the power with his right to launch the ball and so tries to trick his way past Evanilson. Instead, he kicks it into the right foot of the Brazilian.
Both players tumble but Evanilson is far more upright than Walton. The Ipswich goalkeeper is practically crawling as Evanilson walks a few steps before finishing into the far corner for his fifth goal in as many games.
It is worth noting that four of the five goals Evanilson has scored have come against teams in the bottom half of the table, i.e teams that may not necessarily have the quality of player to break this press.
Brighton have stolen the headlines for the best-coached team in the league but what Marco Rose is doing at Bournemouth is also very impressive. The Cherries face Nottingham Forest and Fulham next, two games you would fancy them to win, but the home game against Brighton to start December already looks like a contender for one of the best games of the season.
Against Brighton, Bournemouth’s ultra-high press will be truly tested for the first time with the Seagulls having not only the players to work through a high press but also the willingness to go long, for no team has completed more accurate long balls per match than Fabian Hurzeler’s team.
So no, goalkeepers are not being generous to Evanilson. Him and Bournemouth are forcing them to be.
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