Can Bournemouth get something against Man City?

Bournemouth have never taken a point off of Man City. The gulf between the teams in financial teams is massive and on the field City can always call on multi-million pound subs if it's not quite going their way. But there is a chink in this Man City side who have been dropping points all season and don't have much to play for, now that they are secure in second place and have more important FA Cup and Champions league games to come.

An unexpected three points would mean everything to the Cherries tonight.

Eddie Howe won't expect City to take their foot off the gas though. They have scored 14 goals in their last four games and conceded just one goal to Southampton, who beat them. Raheem Sterling has been in particularly good form in front of goal and Guardiola might be able to rest a few of his star players and still believe he can beat Bournemouth with room to spare.

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In a way it would help Bournemouth for Man City to be overly confident. Bournemouth will have to play tight and try and restrict Man City, as goal difference could be so very important come the final day of the season. Bournemouth have been staying in games and coming on strong second half in their last few games, and I expect a similar plan for this game. You can't always win a game in the first 20 minutes, but you can certainly lose it and Bournemouth priority must be to try and get to half-time relatively unscathed.

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I expect Howe to play wing backs but to operate more as five at the back. He could flood the midfield with four players, but I fancy him playing three in the middle and two upfront to give the team a chance of hitting City on the break. Solanke is going to want to play and is inform, while we know Callum Wilson is our best striker, so why not play them both? Howe could also have Josh King back on the bench.

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Although the odds are against Bournemouth getting something from this game if they did hang in even for a point it would be a huge result in terms of confidence. Bournemouth need to put in a plucky performance, as West Ham and Watford can watch on and decide how best to play their game on the result of Bournemouth's match. Going first is not going to be easy, but a good result and and it could work very much in Bournemouth's favour.

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AFC Bournemouth
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Possible AFCB Line-up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Simpson, Surman, Gosling,
Danjuma, L Cook, H Wilson, King, Surridge