Bournemouth's creative power could overrun Saints

AFCB have to be fired up for Southampton. The Saints have had a rotten start to the season and they will try and use all that to get a result against Bournemouth. In the past the Saints have been able to bully their near neighbours most of the time, but the Cherries have an opportunity to really stamp their dominance on the south coast with another home win this Saturday.

16th in the table is a really poor start for Southampton. They are under pressure already.

While the table puts a huge 11 points between the two clubs, there is three points up for grabs and Bournemouth have often yielded in the past like at the end of last season when Southampton needed the points to stay in the division. There is no Dusan Tadic this time though. Southampton are finding it hard to score goals as well with just six so far from their eight games, even though they have had 117 shots with 36 on target. Bournemouth have made 99 shots and have had 37 on target.

The stats point towards the Saints not creating enough and not taking their chances with seven big chances made in their eight games, less than one a match. Meanwhile, Bournemouth have created 20 good chances to score in their eight games, two and a half a game. Will Southampton be able to cope with the running power of King, Wilson, Fraser, Brooks or Stanislas? Bournemouth's creative players have been cutting teams open at Dean Court and I fancy a similar in this match.

Many of the Saint's other stats are not that dissimilar to Bournemouth's. They average 409 passes a game, exactly the same as Bournemouth and have conceded 14 goals compared to the Cherries seeing 12 shots beat Begovic. Both teams have two clean sheets. Where Bournemouth have been less under pressure though is at the back. Bournemouth have seen Begovic make 19 saves compared to 30 saves made by Southampton's keeper. Southampton have only made 201 clearances while Bournemouth have made 234.

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Southampton have made 104 interceptions which is also high compared to Bournemouth's 63. It is perhaps showing that Bournemouth are still a high-possession team. But the Saints have put in 144 crosses compared to Bournemouth's 121.

Southampton might have good strikers in Shane Long, Charlie Austin and Danny Ings but if they don't have the creative players to get them in on goal it could be another day when Eddie Howe exacts some punishment on Marl Hughes. AFCB have only beaten the Saints once in the Premier League in six attempts - let's start putting that right. Be loud today. UTCIAD!

Southampton Away Form
LWL

AFCB Home Form
WDWW

Possible AFCB line-up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Francis, Gosling, Surman, Brooks, Ibe, Mousset.

AF
CBTV match preview.

Finally, look out for Cherry Chimes answering questions on AFCB v Southampton on That's Liquid Football.