Bournemouth won their first ever league meeting with Manchester United this evening to move three points clear of the relegation zone.

The hosts broke the deadlock in bizarre fashion when a corner from Junior Stanislas swung directly in with less than two minutes on the clock.

United hit back through Marouane Fellaini to go into the break all square, but a Josh King strike against his former club handed the Cherries a 2-1 victory.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at whether Bournemouth deserved to pick up their second major scalp in the space of a week.

Match statistics

BOURNEMOUTH
Shots: 11
On target: 5
Possession: 43%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 12

MAN UTD
Shots: 11
On target: 5
Possession: 57%
Corners: 7
Fouls: 12

Was the result fair?

Bournemouth fans would have taken any sort of win over Manchester United, but the thing that will make this one extra special is that they matched their more illustrious opponents for the vast majority of the encounter. United will feel that they perhaps deserved a point having seen a number of good chances thwarted by Artur Boruc, but anything more than a draw would have flattered the visitors and, in truth, it is hard to begrudge Bournemouth the victory due to the attitude they showed throughout.

There was a stroke of luck about the opening goal, although perhaps David de Gea deserves a portion of the blame having been beaten directly from a corner. United responded well to going behind, though, getting on the front foot for the majority of the first half, and they were slightly unfortunate not to go in ahead having seen Boruc pull off a stunning double save before Fellaini scrambled home the equaliser. It was the hosts who looked most like scoring in the second half, however, and in the end it could have been more than just a one-goal margin.

Glenn Murray missed two glorious chances after coming off the bench, while United were limited to loose balls falling to Fellaini inside the box. The stats show that it was an even contest for the most part, and perhaps a draw would have been the fairest result, but Bournemouth certainly looked as though they wanted it more and all of that hard work and determination - which was absent from United's display - was rewarded this evening.

Bournemouth's performance

Surely this must go down as the greatest week in the club's history? Seven days after beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Bournemouth have now beaten Manchester United at home to claim the most unlikely of six-point hauls for a side who had previously been unable to buy a victory. The performance will fill Eddie Howe with pride just as much as the result today as his side left nothing out on the field and in the end simply outworked United.

No-one could have predicted the nature of the first goal, but that really got Dean Court rocking and the noise did not subside for the rest of the 90 minutes. That translated onto the pitch as the players got about United time and time again, never seeming to tire. They seemed to gather extra energy from the support in the stands, and in the end they could have won more comfortably had Murray taken either of his glorious chances in the space of a couple of minutes.

They did have their fair share of luck - not least with that opening goal - but they worked hard enough to deserve that luck. Every player played their part in this victory, from Boruc making a number of crucial saves to King leading the line brilliantly and grabbing the winner. There is still a long way to go, but if they can replicate this performance on a weekly basis then it is easy to see the Cherries avoiding relegation this season.

Man Utd's performance

In contrast, what a miserable week it has been for United. Knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday and losing ground in the title race with defeat at Bournemouth - whose squad costs over £350m less than United's - will leave Louis van Gaal facing some serious questions in the coming days, and rightly so. The Dutchman has not had much luck with injuries in fairness, but with the money he has spent, there really ought to be better options available to him, even with such a full treatment room.

Many of the criticisms that have been aimed at United this season have focused on their negative style of play, but they were at least able to pick up points based on a stable defence during that time. This was certainly a more entertaining match than many of United's this season, as was the case in midweek, but they have ended up on the losing side on both occasions and conceded four goals from set pieces in the process. That defensive solidity, which was the only positive for many of United's fans, seems to have gone too.

In short, United's players did not look anywhere near as hungry for this one as Bournemouth's. The visitors probably deserved something from the game considering the saves made by Boruc, but in truth they didn't really create anything of substance in the second half, with most of their chances being second balls falling to Fellaini. He was bemusingly taken off when United were in need of a goal late on, being replaced by Nick Powell, which seemed to sum up the haphazard nature of Van Gaal's thinking in recent weeks and the performance today. Simply not good enough.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Artur Boruc: There was no shortage of Bournemouth heroes out there today, but had Boruc not pulled off a world-class double save after just five minutes it could have been an entirely different story. The keeper's first save to deny Fellaini's volley from point-blank range was impressive enough, but he then managed to get up and tip Paddy McNair's rebound past the post.

Biggest gaffe

De Gea deserves a mention for allowing Stanislas's corner to fly straight in, while the defending for the winning goal was poor from United too. However, this dubious honour goes the way of Murray for the first of his two horrendous misses in quick succession. The sub did everything right up until the finish, which he blazed over the crossbar.

Referee performance

This was a fairly easy game to officiate for Anthony Taylor, who dished out just three yellow cards and had no major decisions to make.

What next?

Bournemouth: Bournemouth will look to make it three wins on the bounce and five games unbeaten when they face West Brom at The Hawthorns next Saturday.

Man Utd: United, meanwhile, will be looking for a first win in six games when they host Norwich City, also on Saturday.