I have been pleased with the way Josh King and Benik Afobe have been on the score sheets in recent games. The net has bulged reasonably frequently for AFCB even if the services of Callum Wilson have been short-lived for the second successive season. But as a striker you do get moments when luck either goes with you or against you, and some of Diego Costa's luck didn't rub off on Afobe last Saturday.
Benik has had braces of goals for AFCB and has had some good days in front of the goal. But his strike against Chelsea in the first half that beat Courtois and hit the post but did not go in off the back of the Chelsea keeper was really bad luck. One of the commentators on BT Sport had wondered how many black casts AFCB had run over in the morning, and when yo added that incident to the luckless Adam Smith who blocked Diego's poor shot into his own net, it was hard to feel anything other than AFCB being out of luck in that first half against Chelsea.
Again the early sliced clearance from David Luiz from Fraser's first minute cross could have ended up in the back of the net, but was magnificently saved by Courtois. You can throw in a penalty miss at Southampton from Harry Arter and other missed opportunities from the spot and it would be easy to get dejected about the Cherries' fortune or rather lack of it.
Eddie Howe's answer is always to work harder and I'm sure the players will. But if AFCB have to make their own luck to stay up this season we could be in for a rather nervous few games now as the fixture list begins to run out.
Afobe was more in the thick of the action on Saturday. |
Eddie Howe's answer is always to work harder and I'm sure the players will. But if AFCB have to make their own luck to stay up this season we could be in for a rather nervous few games now as the fixture list begins to run out.
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