Last season's team deserved their opportunity

The decision to pick a team made up mainly of last season's heroes did not quite pay off against Villa on the first day of the season. The decision was made easier with the knowledge that Tyrone Mings had taken a knock in training, but with the late arrivals for Lee Tomlin and Max Gradel, there was not too much room for Eddie Howe to make changes unless he has favoured Sylvain Distin over the central back pairing of Cook and Elphick.

The starting line up against Villa was not surprising to Tommy Elphick who felt that those players selected were the ones that had done best in pre-season. Sentiment was not the reason for the choices but circumstance and believing that there was no big need to make a host of changes to the team probably encouraged the selections.

The Cherries will gain in strength through the season.

How frequently Eddie Howe chops and changes now is going to be the question now. There are plenty of things that can be changed in the next few games and yet the manager will also be mindful that it will help players to get a run of games. Fitness is always going to be key and I was probably not alone in wondering why Josh King was subbed fairly early in the Villa game even though he had been playing well. We can only go on what we can see on the pitch but most of the players looked like they managed with the 90 minutes fairly well.

Now that the first game has gone, we know a little more about who has done well in pre-season and it's up to the others to challenge for places now. Nine days of thinking and several training days will hopefully come up with a team that is capable of getting the points against Liverpool.

You can listen to more of my thoughts on this by listening into All Department's latest podcast where I chat with AFCB fans Damien Hill and Michael Dunne, the editor of All Departments' podcast. It's the first Premier League podcast and the the first All Departments to have two guests on air at once. To hear how we got on with analysis of the Villa game visit All Departments website later today for different ways to listen in, it's free.

Meanwhile, I also note that there was a celebrity at Dean Court on Saturday - and Joey Barton wasn't short of a word or two. Well PremierTalk insists, 'Joey is better off in the stands'.