Antoine Semenyo at the double as Bournemouth finish with win over Leicester | OneFootball

Bournemouth arrested their end-of-season slump to beat Leicester 2-0 on the final day and ensure a top-half finish.

Antoine Semenyo struck twice to clinch victory on what was otherwise a fairly forgettable afternoon.

This is Bournemouth’s best-ever Premier League season, but somehow it has not felt like it lately. As recently as the end of February, they were fifth in the league, eyes firmly fixed on the Champions League places.

But just two wins from 12 games before the visit of relegated Leicester extinguished any hope of a first-ever European campaign for the Cherries next season.

Since being relegated at the end of April, Leicester’s form has been good, with the Foxes having taken seven of the last nine points available to them.

Here they were bright and ought to have gone ahead when Oliver Skipp wasted a good sight of goal. Soon afterwards, Bournemouth’s Evanilson dragged a shot just beyond the far post in the game’s first chances.

Bournemouth gained momentum and David Brooks soon saw his volley saved by Jakub Stolarczyk after Tyler Adams’ cross had reached him at the far post.

As expected, the intensity was hardly fierce at the Vitality Stadium for a final-day fixture with nothing riding on it. Skipp did have the ball in the net for Leicester after half an hour, but Kasey McAteer was offside in the build-up.

Five minutes before half-time, Conor Coady brought down Evanilson right on the edge of the area as he threatened to race clear. From the resulting free-kick, Stolarczyk saved superbly low to his left to keep the scores level.

Bournemouth maintained their pressure after the break and were denied by another superb save from Stolarczyk and he pushed Tavernier’s curling shot past the post.

Leicester’s supporters were spending the afternoon voicing their anger at the club’s board, in particular director of football Jon Rudkin.

It was then Bournemouth’s turn to see a goal ruled out, with the ball having gone out of play on the way to Daniel Jebbison who volleyed in at the far post.

Finally the deadlock was broken and it came following a Bournemouth corner. Justin Kluivert dinked the ball to the far post where Illya Zabarnyi towered a header back into the six-yard box with Semenyo waiting to stab it home.

There was a standing ovation for Real Madrid-bound Dean Huijsen who came off the bench for the final 13 minutes to say farewell to the Bournemouth supporters.

Huijsen had a hand in Semenyo’s second goal, winning the ball back on the edge of the Leicester penalty area to allow the Ghana international to pick his spot and score.