Opposition View: Bournemouth
The prospect of playing Bournemouth at home is enough to bring a full grown man out in a cold sweat. Not since New Year’s Day 2008 have the Albion beaten the Cherries in the league and nobody needs reminding of the catastrophic afternoon we had last time we met.
That was back in April, when Eddie Howe and his men inflicted a heaviest home defeat on Brighton for 39 years. It was the day when many of us concluded, sadly, that Chris Hughton’s race looked run as Seagulls boss. Tony Bloom shared that view and four weeks later, Hughton was sacked.
The good news is that it surely can’t be as bad this time around. Brighton actually come into this one above Bournemouth in the table, and it’s very rare that happens.
Can the Albion pick up a win over Bournemouth for the first time in 12 years? Here’s what Peter Bell from Cherry Chimes had to say ahead of his side’s trip to the Amex.
Talk us through Bournemouth’s season so far. Are you happy with how things are going?
It’s been another season that has promised much but ultimately has become a relegation fight. The injuries have been mounting up. While we have had great wins against Manchester United and Chelsea, we’ve dropped points to teams we probably expected to do better against like Norwich City, Newcastle United and Burnley.
The Premier League is tough. Eddie Howe has been under pressure and I still don’t think we have seen Bournemouth play as well as they can do yet.
Who have been the Cherries’ star players? Any disappointments?
Best players include Aaron Ramsdale in goal and Jefferson Lerma in central midfield and Diego Rico at left back. Personally, I would say Ramsdale (Rambo to the fans) has been the most exciting player to see do well as he is holding down the England Under 21s goalkeeper position and he’s going to challenge the very best before long.
I can say I’ve not been overly excited about Dominic Solanke, who we are still waiting to see score. The only real disappointment has been not to see David Brooks as he has been injured and undergone a couple of operations on his ankle.
We love the way that Bournemouth will go on a run of four or five really poor results, then go and win away at somewhere like Chelsea. What’s the secret to doing that?
Probably losing to teams we shouldn’t! The Chelsea matches are really intriguing as they seem to get the better of us in cup games, but when it comes to the league, we always seem to put on a good show at Stamford Bridge. It’s knowing how to stop them play and then letting them over-commit coming forwards. We have players that can hurt teams on the counter now.
Both the Arsenal and Spurs jobs have come up in the last few months and neither has made a move for Eddie Howe. How much longer can you hold onto him, given the brilliant job he continues to do? And why haven’t one of the big six take a chance?
I don’t think Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall are looking to move yet. They have everything they need at Bournemouth. The crowd and owners are fully behind them and the club has basically been shaped in Eddie’s ideal vision – how he wants it to be. There is a new training complex being built and the academy players are starting to come through.
Eddie has a young family and Bournemouth is great place to bring kids up as well. A move to a top six size might improve the salary but Eddie loves working with young players and building a side and he has brought in a lot of new players in the last few windows. Leaving that behind at the moment probably doesn’t appeal to him when he still aims to make Bournemouth a stronger top 10 club. The only job I can see him saying yes to one day would be the England job, but he has time on his side.
You’ve been an established Premier League team for a number of years now. How do Bournemouth take the next step to becoming regular top 10 finishers?
Better recruitment is crucial. We have made some good signings like Natahn Ake, Jefferson Lerma and David Brooks, but there have been poor decisions, too. Asmir Begovic, Jermain Defoe, Benik Afobe, Emrson Hyndman, even Lys Mousset and Glenn Murray didn’t work out for us.
Then it is about being more consistent. We can beat the best teams but as you have seen, we can lose to anyone. The defence is also not yet delivering as many clean sheets as it needs to to be a top six side.
What did you make of the two meetings between the clubs last season? The last time we played each other at the Amex was obviously something of a disaster from an Albion point of view.
I think you should include the FA Cup game in that to balance tings up a bit. I just remember David Brooks applying himself exceptionally well in the home game that we won 2-0. His second goal was a crazy header with his back to goal as he turned, but it looped in to surprise us all.
The 5-0 away win was really the game that got us over 40 points. The team was under a lot of pressure before the game. It was only 1-0 at half-time, so the sending off of Anthony Knockaert really opened it up for us. But in between those games was the FA Cup game when Brighton never looked touchable in your 3-1 progression to the fourth round.
Have you seen much of Brighton this season under Graham Potter? If so, what do you think?
If I’m honest, I thought Brighton would struggle. Yet, the Seagulls are above Bournemouth in the table when I write this. Beating Spurs and Everton were big results and I expect that gave the team plenty of confidence. Graham Potter is probably more attack-minded than Chris Hughton and at home you’ve been pretty solid. It’s consistency that you need.
What weaknesses are there in this Bournemouth side for Potter to exploit?
Against Leicester and Liverpool the team failed to deal with long balls over the top. But against Burnley, they seemed to have worked this out. Free kicks still tend to catch the players asleep at times, but the defence has been improving. It’s goals we lack.
Based on what you’ve seen so far, who is winning the league and who is going down?
Well, Liverpool are nailed on to win it. The rest of the top four should be interesting. You have to favour Man City and Leicester City to grab two of the spots and then in the fourth place battle I’d fancy Chelsea to take it.
Relegation, I’m saying Norwich City, Watford and Aston Villa
Finally, a prediction please?
We won’t win 0-5 this time! I reckon it will be 1-1.
Thanks to Peter for not predicting a 5-0 defeat for the Albion this time! You can check out his thoughts on all things Bournemouth over on Cherry Chimes or follow him on Twitter.
