Callum Wilson would be well advised to just hang fire on booking his post-season holiday for next summer.
If the Bournemouth frontman continues this kind of dazzling form, there’s no way Gareth Southgate won’t pick him for England’s tilt at UEFA Nations League glory.
Luckily, northern Portugal is rather splendid in June and Wilson could well prove the ace up Southgate’s sleeve when they take on Holland, Portugal and Switzerland for the trophy.
Wilson’s goal on his England debut against the United States last month only seems to have boosted his confidence further and his goal and assist here arrested Bournemouth’s recent slump.
A thumping header early on set the tone before Wilson’s defence-splitting pass released Ryan Fraser for the second as the Cherries leapfrogged Everton, Manchester United and Leicester into sixth place.
Huddersfield could certainly claim they deserved a point, however, having dominated possession and created a succession of excellent openings.
But they had only Terence Kongolo’s goal to show for their efforts and remain teetering just above the relegation zone.
After four consecutive defeats had slammed the brakes on Bournemouth’s excellent start to the season, it was imperative they seized the early initiative here.
Thanks to Wilson, that’s precisely what they did. Just five minutes were on the clock when Joshua King was fouled twice in quick succession by first Kongolo and Erik Durm on the Bournemouth right.
The second position allowed Fraser the opportunity to swing in a tempting delivery and Huddersfield’s defenders stood statuesque as Wilson, Nathan Ake and Jefferson Lerma broke goal-side of them.
Lerma was offside but Wilson was played on by Matias Jorgenson and planted a firm header past Jonas Lossl for the perfect start.
The goal hauled Wilson level with Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane on eight Premier League goals for the season, while Fraser’s seventh league assist set a Premier League season-high and a new club record for a Bournemouth top-flight campaign.
Fraser is enjoying an outstanding season and is often at the heart of everything good Bournemouth produce. It’s not just the assists, the Scot has an assured finish in front of goal too and he proved it on 22 minutes.
King carried the ball over half-way and fed Wilson, who had the presence of mind to know Fraser was steaming forward into acres of space to his left.
Wilson’s pass took out the entire Huddersfield defence and Fraser finished with composure via a slight nick off Lossl’s leg.
The bizarre thing was, Huddersfield - the league’s lowest scorers - had created some excellent chances for their two-thirds of possession.
Asmir Begovic saved smartly from Alex Pritchard, Laurent Depoitre and Aaron Mooy before Kongolo threw them a lifeline.
Mooy crossed from the right and a game of head tennis involved Christopher Schindler and Jorgenson before Kongolo rose to beat Begovic.
The visitors controlled large parts of the second-half, with Begovic saving well with his legs to deny Mooy, but the equaliser would elude them.
yuyu21
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Huddersfield worth a point imo. Bournemouth great start to the season continues.
Sallyy
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didnt watch the game, but stats looks like huddersfield dominated
airborne
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As everyone has remarked, after our two goals we were awful, hanging on for dear life. Huddersfield certainly played like terriers, pressing hard and chasing every ball. However, we do deserve our bit of luck after refs have missed penalties, not offside goals etc. One thing, Eddie's substitutions seem to be time wasters in the main recently, (87 minutes and 90+3) not meant to give the players time to be effective?
Ryan122
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Well we've not got the points we deserved in recent games but we completely burgled those three points.
hossttry
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No idea how we cherries won that. Huddersfield should feel hard done by as they deserved the points. Feel sorry for their supporters tonight. We played badly and came away with 3 points. Previously we've played great and gone away with nothing. It's a funny old game!
urately
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Lucky lucky lucky, but we'll take the three points. If Huddersfield had a decent striker they'd have blown us away. UTCIAD
haoshib
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Eddie Howe is a fantastic coach!
hukcal
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Fair play to Huddersfield played Bournemouth of the park second half but could not get an equaliser. Bournemouth need to man up and take note there are 2 halfs to a football match not 1.
Edmunder
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Battered them came out with nothing.Well played town
oddments
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Can't believe we won that. It was embarrassing. We were so far off the pace it was awful. Daniels has no place in a Premier League side and we just looked tired. Nice to stop the rot of defeats but Huddersfield deserved more, fans made good noise and I feel sorry for them returning back up north at this time of night with no points as we definitely didn't deserve any, let alone 3. Their pressing and harrying tactics worked well and we just gave them so much space. Eddie needs to make some changes to the mentality before the weekend.