Bournemouth stay in bottom three after failing to break down Leicester

By the full-time whistle, neither Bournemouth nor Leicester City had too much to shout about. Eddie Howe preached positivity while Craig Shakespeare praised his team’s resilience but this stalemate did few favours for either side. Leicester are still teetering above the relegation zone on goal difference, ahead of Bournemouth, who will spend the international break in the bottom three.

After seven matches, both teams can only take solace from one win this season, against the same team, Brighton and Hove Albion.

Bournemouth dominated this contest and should have had a first-half penalty, after Danny Simpson handled Marc Pugh’s goal-bound effort after Jermain Defoe struck the bar. Howe, though, had sympathy for the referee, Graham Scott, who was unsighted. “I didn’t see it at the time but when you see it again, slowed down, you see it’s a clear-cut penalty,” the Bournemouth manager said. “I don’t think it’s doom and gloom for us, I think it’s a positive day.”

Bournemouth amassed almost 20 shots on goal while chances were few and far between for Leicester, who could have smuggled away three points but for Shinji Okazaki’s second-half miss. It was the only time Leicester truly got the better of the Bournemouth backline, who did not have to contend with Riyad Mahrez until the final 15 minutes. Shakespeare dropped the winger from his starting lineup in the Premier League for the first time since April, with Demarai Gray, coveted by Bournemouth since he was a teenager at Birmingham City, preferred here.

Christian Fuchs also returned at left-back while Jamie Vardy started, despite his omission from the England squad. The striker has hardly trained over the past fortnight and will have a steroid injection to treat a long-standing hip problem. Howe also made two changes, with Lewis Cook’s name ironically cheered by home supporters a few minutes from time after being awarded the man of the match award on his first league start this term.

After a cagey opening couple of minutes, Bournemouth exploded into life. Joshua King played a neat one-two with Defoe, who scooped the ball on to the bar after beating Andy King to his strike-partner’s low cross. The rebound bounced its way towards Pugh, who would have scored but for the right hand of Simpson, who kept the ball out.

Defoe then latched on to a marvellous defence-splitting through ball by Junior Stanislas but before bearing down on Kasper Schmeichel, the Leicester captain, Wes Morgan, did brilliantly to get back at his man after losing the footrace before Pugh dragged wide.

Somehow Leicester, exposed time and again, survived but an exasperated Shakespeare sought personnel changes at the interval, introducing Vicente Iborra in place of King.

Bournemouth continued to pry for an opening, with Cook, the England under-21 midfielder, jinking away from Iborra and Ndidi in the middle of the park before King’s lofted pass was eventually cleared. Then, against the run of play, Leicester squandered an unlikely lifeline on the hour mark. When Simon Francis’s clearing header fell straight to Okazaki, the Japan forward shot wide from 12 yards.

There was almost a stoppage-time twist in the tale when Mahrez’s cross forced Nathan Aké to clear agonisingly wide of his own goal.

“I suppose we have to be happy with a point,” Shakespeare said. “We got a clean sheet, we’ve had a real tough start to the season but now we’ve got a chance to regroup.”