BOSS Eddie Howe admitted Cherries had failed to get the basics right after being rocked in their 4-0 reverse at Burnley.

The Dorset club equalled their biggest margin of defeat in the top flight after Ashley Barnes’s late double added to first-half goals from Matej Vydra and Aaron Lennon.

Despite Nathan Ake hitting the crossbar with the score goalless and having more than 62 per cent possession at Turf Moor, Howe said his side failed to find their best form.

He told the Daily Echo: “There are no surprises in this division. You know what to expect and we were certainly well prepared for Burnley and the strengths they possess.

“For me, they are still a very effective team and can hurt you if you don’t do the basics right, which we didn’t.

“It was a 4-0, that was the result, but I think it was hard on us. People will look at the scoreline and get one idea of the game but I think it was far from that.

“I think if we had got the third goal, it would have been very different. That is certainly what we were looking for in the second half and it didn’t come, despite all the pressure we had.

“The only criticism in the second half was that we were bit naive at the end.

“To win any game you need a good nine or 10 players to really perform well and we didn’t have that. “

Cherries' 4-2 victory over Leicester at Vitality Stadium eight days ago had set tongues wagging about their blistering start to the campaign.

But Howe insisted he was keen for his troops to remain balanced regardless of the Premier League’s highs and lows.

“Last week everyone was waxing lyrical about the team and I felt we weren’t as good as everyone thought we were against Leicester,” he added.

“I’m sure this week we will be on the other side of it where there will be some hard words for the team but I don’t think we were as bad as people may say on reflection.

“My job is to look at the performance and to try to improve that. We will analyse the game in the right way and won’t overreact to what we have seen.

“There are certainly things we have to do better. Elements of the game we didn’t get right.

“We had a number of other opportunities to do better and around the box was a huge disappointment.”

Defeat left Cherries on 10 points from their opening six league outings.

“It’s still been a good start but, as we have found in previous seasons when we haven’t started well, it can quickly turn the other way,” added Howe.

“It’s up to us what we do now and it’s about picking up points in the games in which we can do that. It's a game we will learn and grow from.”