How high can the Cherries finish?

The test now for the Cherries is to finish as high as they can to gain funds for development of the squad and facilities at the club. If we look back to last season and see where the team was as we came round to the first match in April, the Cherries had already played 32 games and were considered safe with 38 points, but this season the matches are slightly behind with 29 games played. AFCB might wish to beat last season's total of 42 points, but is it realistic for the Cherries to gain another 10 points?

The Cherries still need a few more points.

Well if AFCB stay on their current course of gaining an average of about a point per game they will just scrape about 10 points to give them a total of 43 points! Would that be considered  good value for what was spent last summer? Some would say it is hardly progress but more like stagnation, and yet I think the second season was always going to be more difficult as teams would know much more about how Eddie Howe[s team likes to attack. Of course the Cherries have not got the points they need yet and any forecast of where the Cherries might finish is just that. However, the total is unlikely to be much different from last season and yet I'd expect most fans to accept that as being acceptable, even if not as good as we might all like.

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The Premier league finances though are given out to final position places and whether a low 40s point score will get the Cherries a better finish than the 16th place of last season is quite possible. At the moment they sit in 11th with only Leicester and Watford with a game in hand that could see them overtake the Cherries. So with five points ahead of 16th placed Crystal Palace, the Cherries go into their last batch of fixtures knowing that they can reach some of their pre-season targets. At this stage of the campaign I'd say that is pretty good that they are still in sight of those aims.

The upcoming fixtures may be the hardest run of games that the Cherries have had and yet it is the lower positioned clubs that have been harder for the Cherries to get points from and AFCB will need a good run in April if they are to beat expectations and end the season in top half - that would be something worth celebrating in my view.