Eddie Howe didn’t hold back in his criticism of his players’ performance in his post-match press conference, attended by The Athletic‘s George Caulkin.

He said: “We’re disappointed, very disappointed with our general performance today. Just starting off the ball, in terms of trying to deliver a really competitive, energetic performance, it wasn’t there.

“Then the duels, we were off on our duels, so then it becomes very difficult because they’re still the best team in the Premier League, maybe the world still for me in the build-up phase.

“We have days where we can look far from the team that we are when we’re on it, and it’s a real frustration for us because to be an elite team, you’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to figure out ways to be competitive. We never responded really in that first half.”