The Cherries' sights set on building a gap at the top

It is not easy to come off a Cup defeat and to go straight back into top v bottom clash away from home. No one at AFCB will think lightly though of a Blackpool side that are desperate for points for another reason than the Cherries desire to get three points. The unbeaten run in the Championship goes on and there is nothing wrong with the bread and butter matches to be played over this holiday period which could see AFCB forge a gap at the top of the table.

Can they Cherries stay on top and build a lead on the other other teams?

The teams in and around the top six are all looking up at the Cherries now and hoping that our team slips up over the next few games and yet AFCB have a good run of fixtures against teams that are not so well placed in the league in the next month or so. The disappointment of a cup exit can be replaced by the prospect of a run in the FA Cup and the momentum that the club has built up in the league cannot be wasted now. 

It is likely that the Liverpool match will have taken a bit out of the players emotionally, but fixing their sights on enlarging the distance between the first and following places in the Championship is something that AFCB fans could only have dreamed about at the start of the season. This is reality though and the league is looking splendid and Eddie Howe will want the club to still be top of the league come Christmas Day and into the New Year. That ambition starts with a tricky tie away up at Blackpool and it is key for Callum Wilson and Yann Kermorgant to get back in the scoring zone to put pressure on the teams below.

With Derby at home to Norwich and Middlesbrough having to face Ipswich it this weekend it is not just the result at Blackpool that would help the gap at the top emerge. For Bournemouth it is  a case of trying to get back to clean sheets and slotting away the chances and an away win should set the team up very nicely for the visit of Fulham on Boxing Day.