Stoke City have dropped into the relegation zone courtesy of a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this evening.
The Potters broke the deadlock through Xherdan Shaqiri after only five minutes, but goals from Joshua King and Lys Mousset in the space of nine second-half minutes saw the Cherries come from behind to take all three points.
The win lifts Eddie Howe's side up to ninth place following a six-game unbeaten run in the Premier League, whereas Stoke have now won just one of their eight matches across all competitions since Christmas.
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Bournemouth went into the match looking to follow up their impressive 3-0 win over champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in midweek, but they got off to the worst possible start when they fell behind after only five minutes.
New signing Badou Ndiaye made an immediate impact with a cross into the box which was met by an unmarked Shaqiri, who glanced the ball past the keeper for the first headed goal of his career.
The hosts quickly went in search of a response as Jordon Ibe hammered the ball into the side-netting, but they suffered another early setback when Steve Cook was forced off after only 12 minutes, being replaced by King.
King's introduction would eventually pay dividends, but before that the in-form Callum Wilson threatened when he raced onto a pass over the top before drawing a save from Jack Butland.
Ndiaye then dragged a shot wide from the edge of the box on his debut, although such goalscoring chances were few and far between for the Potters after their early goal.
It looked as though Bournemouth might have restored parity when Ibe applied the finishing touch to a flowing team move, but Erik Pieters was well placed on the line to deny a certain goal with a last-ditch block.
Butland was then called upon to deny Junior Stanislas's free kick as Bournemouth failed to pull a goal back before half time, but they began the second period on top too and the Stoke keeper was once again needed to save from King's long-range effort in the opening exchanges.
Ndiaye continued to look the most likely for Stoke at the other end and almost marked his first appearance in English football with a memorable bicycle kick, only for his acrobatic effort to bounce wide of the target.
That sparked an encouraging period for the visitors as Peter Crouch fired one effort straight at Asmir Begovic before seeing a header skim the top of the crossbar on its way over shortly after the hour mark.
Bournemouth got the game's next goal with 20 minutes remaining, though, as a defensive mix-up saw the ball fall to King inside the area, and the Bournemouth striker ruthlessly capitalised on the stroke of luck with an unerring low finish.
A second goal arrived just nine minutes later when Ibe whipped a devilish free kick in towards the back post, where Mousset was waiting to nod home from a tight angle.
That proved to be enough to wrap up the victory as Stoke struggled to come up with a response in the closing stages, leaving them 18th in the table and in the relegation zone on goal difference.
BOURNEMOUTH (3-4-3): Begovic; Francis, S Cook (King, 13'), Ake; Fraserm L Cook, Gosling, Daniels; Ibe (Pugh, 92'), Wilson, Stanislas (Mousset, 59')
STOKE (4-2-3-1): Butland; Bauer, Shawcross, Zouma, Pieters; Cameron, Ndiaye (Stafylidis, 71'), Shaqiri, Allen, Choupo-Moting (Berahino, 83'); Crouch (Diouf, 83')
Barney Corkhill
