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Bournemouth’s and Marco Rose’s wait for a Premier League win is over. Sunderland, locked in the bottom three, are becoming this season’s object lesson in travelling too far too fast. Sixth and seventh last season, that both teams have struggled domestically while cruising in the Europa League speaks to a continental drift where talent from mid-range but historically grander clubs is readily picked off by Premier League clubs. Two of Bournemouth’s summer additions came via Benfica and Sevilla, Sunderland bought from Lille and Lyon. None of which is any guarantee of Premier League safety. Once Kevin Danso, on loan from Tottenham, was dismissed in the 17th minute for a blatant denial of a goalscoring opportunity, Sunderland were sunk on the south coast. With a turnaround tight time from Leiria on Thursday, England’s south coast on Sunday and Poznan in midweek, resources are stretched thinly for Régis Le Bris, at a club where the European dream comes against uncomfortable domestic realities. Talk of a possible sale to new investors has not abated, with a boardroom reshuffle placing Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the youthful majority owner, in charge of day-to-day operations. And to place in pure football terms, Sunderland have not celebrated a league win since August, and lost four in succession. Both managers had selected stronger teams for Sunday’s fixtures compared to Thursday’s. Five changes for Sunderland from Torreense, with Granit Xhaka restored, spelled out Le Bris’s priorities, as did the selection of James Hill, Adrien Truffert and Rayan as Rose likewise made five alterations from beating Sturm Graz at home. Xhaka’s early mistake prefaced the jet-lagged, error strewn performance that followed Sunderland’s first European away match since 1973. Bournemouth began as Rose demanded, high-press from the get-go, vertical when possible. After Lewis Cook dabbed the ball forward, Evanilson, restored to the line-leading striker’s role, seized on a collective muddle between Danso and Omar Alderete. The Brazilian’s reputation for unselfishness was deepened by his next choice of action. Instead of shooting, he laid up a diving Marcus Tavernier to head home. Danso’s exit swiftly followed. Evanilson escaped beyond the dallying defender and clumsiness served as no excuse. Craig Pawson, the referee, and his team, could reach no decision other than sending the Austrian for an early sachet of shower gel. A goal up, a man up represented a challenge to Bournemouth’s presence of mind; they had previously conceded nine points from winning positions. First-half chances piled up, Robin Roefs asked to bail out bungling defenders on repeated occasions. There was audible and visible squabbling within the Sunderland ranks over the blame for Rayan and Evanilson enjoying such space. With pressure piling on, the season lurching, Le Bris might argue he can only fight with the resources available to him. Brian Brobbey, on the bench in Portugal after injury on international duty, was missing altogether. Timur Tutierov, 21, last season loaned to Exeter, played as an increasingly lonesome striker, chasing autumnal shadows before a merciful substitution before the hour. That a Danso header was Sunderland’s final attempt on goal of the first half said it all about the direction of travel. Rose, who revealed this week he had binge-watched Sunderland ’Til I Die on Netflix, kicked every ball on the sidelines. The German’s need for three points was implicit. Patience has been a virtue of the Bournemouth project, but with the Vitality Stadium modernising fast, fans sitting in new-build corner stands as part of renovations, relegation battles cannot be countenanced. The second goal came with a collective sigh of relief, and via more Sunderland benevolence. Evanilson, given nobody else to pass to by Alderete’s brain-fogged back-pass, supplied a hip swivel Rudolf Nureyev might have been proud of to sit Roefs down and slot into an empty net. A popular goal for a popular player, one of many signings the Bournemouth back office have been successful in making. Bournemouth could and should have scored more, raining 29 shots on Sunderland’s goal by the 70th minute, including Rayan’s header being hacked from the line. If thoughts were understandably drifting to Thursday and Milan, seven-times European champions, coming to Dorset in the Europa League, Rose would not allow his players to be distracted. After Sunderland enjoyed a late spell of the game that at last had mackem visitors in full voice, Rose’s team played out the game with admirable calm, Rayan’s dancing feet to the fore as the ball was retained. On this evidence, two clubs facing similar challenges are on very different trajectories.

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The four Premier League clubs playing in the lesser continental competitions face each other on Sunday – but three are struggling domestically The sun shone. The temperature was in the high 20s. There was a mood of great conviviality. If you were struggling with the official allocation, it turned out you could just email the president of Torreense and he’d sort you out. Were these “Nuno-tickets” real? It turned out they were. Not only that, but you could sit anywhere you wanted in a stadium too big for the game and, if you happened to have gravitated to the comfortable hospitality seating at the back of the lower tier, the beer was inexplicably free. Locals in Leiria seemed bewildered but could hardly have been more accommodating. A beer pump had been installed outside a patisserie on the Praça Francisco Rodrigues Lobo, whose owner soon found fans happy to help stack empty barrels if that facilitated the free flow of Sagres. “There was a meeting at the town hall to explain these are not hooligans,” said the owner of a radical leftist flammkuchen restaurant between the square and the cathedral. “They told us the club comes from the labour movement and I found that very interesting.” And how had she found the fans? “Noisy, but with a quirky sense of humour.” This was everything Sunderland fans could have wished for from their first European away game in 53 years and more. They had seen other fans experience these things, and now they could tick off the checklist: complicated travel to a pretty foreign town they would otherwise never visit, a fussy Albanian referee and a great sense of togetherness and community. There was even an injury-time winner from, miracle of miracles, Noah Sadiki. Ask any of the 5,000 or so Wearsiders who made the trip to Portugal if the Europa League was worth it and the answer would be unanimous. Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Brighton fans would surely say something similar: European football, especially for clubs who are unfamiliar with it, is a joy and an adventure. It generates experiences that will be remembered for ever, and if the cost is that the risk of relegation goes up, that’s a price worth paying. Others at those clubs may see things differently. The four Premier League clubs involved in the lesser two European competitions play each other on Sunday. Brighton are thriving; the other three are not. Palace were 12th before the weekend fixtures but not playing well. Bournemouth against Sunderland is a battle of third- and fourth-bottom. Whether the Europa League football can yet be blamed is debatable. Brighton surely can’t be bucking the trend just because of the lesser demands of the Conference League. Thursday’s was only the second round of Europa League league games, and the clubs involved bypassed a round of the Carabao Cup; fatigue may come but it shouldn’t be an issue yet. There are other factors at play. Sunderland have already played Manchester City, Arsenal, Brighton and Brentford, the top four going into this weekend. They could easily have been a couple of goals up by half-time at Brentford. They missed a penalty to go ahead against Arsenal. They registered an xG of 2.72 in losing 5-3 at Manchester City. Only in the defeat to Brighton last weekend have they really disappointed. In the equivalent six games last season (substituting Ipswich for Burnley), Sunderland took only one point; in that sense, they are actually three points better off this campaign. But that can’t alter the fact that four points from six games leaves them beginning to fret. There is pressure on this next run of fixtures: after Bournemouth, they are home to Leeds, then away to Coventry. Sunderland’s transfer business left a major question on the right of the forward line that has yet to be resolved. A lack of depth in certain areas has been exposed by injuries to Brian Brobbey and Habib Diarra, although both players were on the bench on Thursday. Bournemouth have also lost key players to injury. Eli Junior Kroupi, who scored 13 league goals last season, has not played this campaign. Neither has Amine Adli, although he came off the bench on Thursday, as did Justin Kluivert, who had been out for a month. Most damagingly of all, perhaps, after impressing for England against Croatia, Alex Scott has been ruled out with a thigh injury. The transition away from Andoni Iraola was always likely to be disruptive and, while Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at Chelsea was a jolt, their other losses this season were to Manchester City and Liverpool. There has been a sense of margins going against them, of draws that might have been wins. The concern, as with Sunderland, comes if that affects morale, and decent displays that have yielded disappointing results curdle into disappointing performances. Palace are in a slightly different position. Other than City, their fixture list has been relatively kind. Seven points from six games would constitute comfortable survival if extrapolated over the season as a whole, but Opta’s expected points table, which has Bournemouth ninth and Sunderland 10th, has them 18th. A new manager is settling in, Maxence Lacroix and Daniel Múñoz were sold over the summer, while Jean-Philippe Mateta hasn’t played since the opening weekend. For none of those three sides can unsettled starts be blamed entirely or even primarily on Europe. That said, the evidence is clear: over the past five years, teams who did not play in Europe the previous season see their league position fall when they do play in Europe: Palace dropped from 12th to 15th, Nottingham Forest from seventh to 16th, Newcastle from fifth to 12th, Brighton from sixth to 11th, West Ham from sixth to seventh. Of those examples, only Forest even came vaguely close to relegation, but the fear nags away. Although winning the Europa League would bring the vast rewards of Champions League football, losing in the final would probably bring in not much more than £20m for a Premier League club, plus gate receipts and whatever intangible benefits there might be from increased exposure. To put that in context, that’s roughly the difference between finishing ninth and 14th in the Premier League. Which is to say that while fans revel in trips to Milan, Prague or Lyon, for club executives a few nice mini-breaks do not balance out the potential financial headaches.

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An impossible dream realised in the Vitality staging European football, and the Europa League is becoming an oasis for Bournemouth. No wins yet in the Premier League but in beating Sturm Graz to follow victory at Real Sociedad should ease the domestic pressures on Marco Rose. A pair of Brazilians secured club history on the gala night, Evanilson’s first-half header followed by Rayan’s close-range drive, a clincher arriving as the Austrian visitors had pushed hard for an equaliser. Álvaro Rodríguez’s injury-time penalty furthered the celebrations. Flag day at the Vitality. Elvis Presley’s high baritone and Andy Williams’ tenor replacing the usual dance hits on the public address system marked a different type of occasion. Bournemouth have come a long way. “Minus 17 to European dreams” read a banner in the Steve Fletcher stand, marking the journey from the foot of the Football League to a model, continental club. Rose’s initial team selection suggested Premier League as priority, though changes following a 5-1 defeat by Chelsea were understandable. Key players and valuable assets had their legs saved for Sunderland, a fixture where both clubs must ride out the unnatural rhythm of Thursday-Sunday. Bournemouth’s new head coach has spoken of the chaos of English football, particularly midfield areas that resemble a rolling maul. Importing the philosophy that brought success in Germany and Austria, if not necessarily sustained, has hit a domestic roadblock. Losing Junior Kroupi so far this season, and now Alex Scott, are regrettable problems for a small squad. Ben Gannon-Doak, a modern rarity as right-footed right winger, offered speed as Evanilson, usually target man, played a supporting role to Álvaro Rodríguez. It was the captain, Adam Smith, overlapping outside Gannon-Doak who supplied the first big chance. Marcus Tavernier, cutting in from the left, shanked wide. Soon after, a Gannon-Doak cross from the byline saw Rodríguez misjudge its flight. The summer signing, raw at 22, found decent positions only for touch to betray him. Bournemouth have not struggled for chance creation this season; execution is a different matter. Graz, fourth in this season’s Österreichische Bundesliga, hardly exuded ambition, their defensive trio often becoming a shell-like five. Within such squeezed spaces, following a corner, Bournemouth had the ball in the net, for what seemed an own-goal but had struck Bafode Diakité’s arm. Tavernier struck the outside of a post with a long-range shot, before Graz at last began to enjoy a bit more success. The away contingent began to celebrate a penalty, only for the official to penalise Belmin Beganovic for diving over Smith’s fair tackle. It was Smith who supplied Evanilson’s goal, a flicked header full of neck muscle looping off the angle for the first European goal celebrated in Boscombe. Rose’s team had the goal their first half deserved. Beyond the break, the scoreline meant Graz had to be more ambitious. Their fans would keep singing whatever the game state, that being the continental way, but there was definitely more to encourage them, with Simon Seidl’s shot whistling wide of Djordje Petrovic’s goal as a statement of intention. Two of Bournemouth’s mainstays, Tavernier and Lewis Cook, tried to take the fight back to Graz when it seemed the first half had drained the energy banks. Gannon-Doak took down one raking ball with a lovely piece of skill only for his cross to be blocked. James Hill, one of those rested, replaced Smith just before Graz twice went very close. Jürgen Heil struck the post with his drive and then Jacob-Peter Hödl forced a remarkable reflex save from Petrovic on the rebound. The spectre of Premier League travails, where good play and good chances have not been converted, began to loom as Graz interchanges became crisper, more confident. The 70th minute triple introduction of Rayan, Justin Kluivert and Ryan Christie was Rose’s successful attempt to both lock down midfield and increase his team’s attacking threat, even if Christie wafting a shooting chance over almost as soon as he arrived was yet more waste. It was left to Rayan to complete the job with a goal to follow his strike at La Real. Daniil Khudyakov, Graz’s Russian goalkeeper, first flapped at a corner and then got only a weak hand to the Brazilian’s shot through the proverbial forest of legs. Bournemouth’s European homecoming had staged the victory the occasion demanded.