This is a fan’s personal view of AFC Bournemouth from the outside looking in. It reports on the daily official activities reported by the club and comments made by individual fans on social media and fanbase websites. Life as an AFCB fan is never dull. As a life-long supporter of the Cherries, it is the friendliness of the staff, fans and my enthusiasm for the club that inspired me to write this blog.
The pressure was on to bounce back against Sunderland. A defeat last Saturday would have left the Cherries in the bottom three and without a home win. It was pleasing though that the players wanted to up their game after the Norwich defeat and were quick to show that last week was not a typical performance for them. That was underlined by the speed of the two goals in the first 10 minutes and the need to get in front early on certainly made the win more comfortable than it might have been had Sunderland been able to keep the Cherries out for half an hour.
AFCB made a fast start against Sunderland that won them the game.
It was the style of the win that was really what will give the players a boost. They sparkled with some of their first half play and stunned Sunderland. The response was simply to try and overwhelm the visitors and it was some time before Jermain Defoe had a chance to get involved, and seeing his chance come and go with Steve Cook and Artur Boruc making his job so much harder showed the determination that the team had to try and get that first clean sheet. There will still be plenty of work to do again though before the Stoke City match. Sunderland did create a couple of chances and were perhaps unlucky to have one goal ruled out. Had the Jeremain Lens header been allowed it would have made it a difficult last few minutes for the Cherries and the early performance did not deserve to see the Cherries having to hang on to get a win. So while AFCB fans can be pleased with the three points there will be an intent to get something from the next game and not to ride an emotional up and down series of results. In some ways this week may be harder for the team to get it right as Stoke will be determined after their disappointing draw against Leicester and we know that visiting the Britannia is not the easiest of games. However, to get something there will be a very big result and Eddie needs to get that across to his players now.
There aren't too many teams below the Cherries in the table but Sunderland are of course one of them. That doesn't make this next encounter an easy game for AFCB. If anything it makes it a more difficult game as Sunderland have everything to gain by getting a result at the Vitality stadium. Sunderland's last defeat was not exactly showing a team that were despondent or feeling down on their luck. They gave Spurs a good battle and only shed one goal on the day in the last 10 minutes. They also got a draw in their last away game against Aston Villa and showed that they could get on the score sheet. So are we seeing a resurgent Sunderland? Jermain Defoe is getting opportunities and should have scored against Spurs when through one on one on Hugo Lloris. Jeremain Lens was the man of the match against Spurs even though he was on the losing side and manager Dick Advocaat said that everyone played well, but they were just short of some match fitness and out of luck. Yann M'Vila is another player AFCB will have to be aware of when it comes to free kicks as well, having scored a beauty against Villa before the international break. Midfielders Ola Toivenen and Jordi Gómez have also been a preferred choices with several more well known players left out of Advocaat's side who are looking at this game to start their season. The Black Cats have other star names too like Fabio Borini, Jack Rodwell, Seb Larsson, Lee Cattermole, Adam Johnson, Steven Fletcher and John O'Shae. Don't tell me that Sunderland don't have some quality, they just have not clicked as a team to a high enough level yet. Advocaat admitted that he as only seen deadline day loan signing full-back DeAndre Yedlin play on TV!
John O'Shea remembers his time at Dean Court fondly.
So it's important that AFCB try and keep them on the back foot - they have to be positive. I'd like to see Elphick and Cook meet the challenge of Steve Fletcher with determination, if he is Advocaat's plan B, as we know he is back from injury and I believe Gosling is a good pick to come in for this match as a former Newcastle player who will run his socks off to get the upper hand in midfield.
Dan could come in for Eunan O'Kane on current form.
My Cherries team Boruc, Francis, Elphick, Cook, Daniels, Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, Stanislas, Kermorgant, Wilson AFCB subs: Federici, Smith, Distin, MacDonald, Pugh, Tomlin, Murray Sunderland last time out: Pantilimon, Jones, O'Shea, Kaboul, van Aanholt, M'Vila, Gómez, Lens, Toivonen, Borini, Defoe Sunderland Away Form LDL AFCB Home Form LD
