The past three games have seen Bournemouth start games poorly, going behind at Everton in a flat first half, drawing 0-0 with West Ham at the break after few opportunities last weekend and going behind to Sunderland today.
Iraola believes his side was the better of the two in the second half, and were the closer to taking all three points, but the start cost his team.
Match report and reaction:
“I think we paid for our slow start,” he told the Daily Echo.
“I think we were very slow to start the game.
“They scored the first goal and obviously after we improved and I think in the second half we were the closest team to winning it.
“But probably we paid the price now in terms of two points today with how we started the game.”
Asked what the reasons behind the slow start was, Iraola explained: “There can be something behind it. We have to analyse because it's true that it happens three times in a row.
Djordje Petrovic. (Image: Richard Crease)
“Even, I think we started better against Villa but we conceded the first goal. So it's costing us a little bit the first minutes.
“Something that I think we've been quite good starting games this season but sometimes you don't pay attention and then it comes back three, four games.
“We have to be very aware because even before the goal, we were playing a lot of time I remember, just in this corner, at the beginning, first five to ten minutes, we haven't been a threat offensively.
“And after, I think we've improved a lot, we played much better. But you are already 1-0 down.”