The visiting captain, Marc Guéhi, branded Crystal Palace’s goalless draw with Bournemouth a “rubbish game” and “boring for the neutral”.
Palace bounced back from Saturday’s 5-1 home hammering at the hands of Arsenal by claiming a creditable point at the Vitality Stadium.
In an even contest of few clear chances, neither Palace’s goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, nor his Bournemouth counterpart, Kepa Arrizabalaga, was seriously troubled, prompting Guéhi to sympathise with fans tuning in on television.
“To be honest, it was a rubbish game,” the England defender told Amazon Prime. “Boring for the neutral, 0-0, not what you want to see on Boxing Day, but we’ll take it!
“Considering what happened last game, it’s kind of all you can ask for, really, a point away against a good side, so we’ll take it. [A clean sheet] is positive, but we can always do better. We can always improve, so that’s the goal.”
Oliver Glasner’s side had the better of the limited first-half opportunities before Bournemouth edged the second period.
The south-coast stalemate made it four top-flight away games without defeat for 16th-placed Palace.
Glasner said: “Everybody had the feeling if a teams scores, this team will win. “Both teams kept a clean sheet and for us a very good 0-0, a very good away point against a very strong side with a lot of confidence. No keeper needed a big save today.”
Andoni Iraola played down the significance of his Bournemouth side being sixth in the table approaching the halfway stage of the season as he reflected on a valuable point.
The hosts failed to score for the first time in 11 top-flight fixtures but stretched their unbeaten run to six matches. Bournemouth, who had amassed 13 points from the previous 15 available following Sunday’s 3-0 win at Manchester United, will reach the midway point of an impressive campaign so far at Fulham on Sunday.
“They don’t give any prize in the 18th game week,” said Bournemouth’s Spanish manager. “At the end of the season, we will know where we are. There are three, four, five teams that probably with a win go ahead of us, so it doesn’t change my [opinion] if we are sixth or 11th.
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“We are playing well, we are competing every game and as long as we can continue this level I think we are going to be fine.”
Bournemouth dropped a position in the table – below Newcastle on goal difference – because of the draw, but remain a point and a place above Manchester City.
“I value a lot the point,” said Iraola. “Crystal Palace, they haven’t lost a lot of games lately. It’s not easy to beat Palace. We’ve done a lot of things well, we also finish the game with a clean sheet. We had enough chances to score one, probably not as clear as the last games.
“But we didn’t expect many more because you know how they play and they are quite compact always and it’s not easy to attack this back line of five players.”
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