Stat Attack: All you need to know about Bournemouth 2-0 Aston Villa

Goals from Jefferson Lerma and Kieffer Moore handed newly-promoted Bournemouth a 2-0 opening day win against Aston Villa. 

Scott Parker's outfit took the lead with less than two minutes on the clock, Lerma firing home after Lloyd Kelly nodded down Marcus Tavernier's corner.

Then Moore's powerful headed effort doubled the Cherries' advantage with 10 minutes of the match remaining.

Danny Ings and Jacob Ramsey had first-half opportunities for the visitors — but Villa were unable to convert their chances at the Vitality Stadium.

Cherries boss Parker applauded his side's passion, desire and commitment after sealing an opening-day win.

He said: "Firstly, the result was a good result for us. That wasn't key for me in terms of how I tried to go about with the team.

"The key thing was performance and us understanding what we need to bring to every game in this Premier League.

"My experiences tell me the fine margins of the league, they can hinge on critical moments.

"What was most important to me was us taking our chance and showing a real passion, desire and a commitment, through whatever we may have faced.

"I thought we did that. I was very proud of the team in that sense."

Speaking afterward, beaten Villa boss Steven Gerrard admitted his side could have no complaints.

He said: "A really frustrating result and a frustrating day.

"We got what we deserved over the course of the game. A lot of focus will be on two set-play moments but if you look across the board and across the game we haven't shown enough quality.

"We didn't look like creating today, which is on me and on us and it's a big area that we need to improve upon.

"We gave ourselves a more difficult challenge in the opening minutes from a set play, but we’ve had more than enough time to get back into the game.

"We had long periods of possession, we had a lot of control, we got to the last areas of the pitch but we were lacking from a quality point of view — certainly in the final third."

Did you know?

Bournemouth are unbeaten in 11 home league games (W7 D4) after losing three of the six before that (W2 D1).

Aston Villa have lost three of their four opening-day Premier League matches since returning to the top-flight in 2019 (W1), after winning three in a row between 2013-14 and 2015-16.

Lerma's opener for Bournemouth is the earliest goal scored on Matchday 1 by a promoted team in Premier League history (one minute 56 seconds).

Within two minutes of the 2022-23 season, Lerma equaled his goal tally from last season's Championship (one goal in 34 games), with the midfielder netting just his second strike in his last 42 league appearances.

Moore has scored in each of his last four league games for Bournemouth (five goals in total) — that is as many as he managed in his previous 25 games (one appearance for the Cherries and 24 appearances for Cardiff).