Can Bournemouth fight their way out of trouble?

It was a longer wait for Bournemouth to pick up a win in 2020 in the league than I had hoped for, but the win against Brighton & Hove Albion can be a starting point for something better. Losing to Watford and Norwich City was very damaging, but other teams have not picked up too many points, while Bournemouth were falling down the table. The situation is salvageable, but form is everything now.

Bournemouth have started to find form - can they keep it going?

Bournemouth got the win against Brighton despite a nervous first 30 minutes. The team was still not functioning that well, but was defending well enough to keep Brighton far enough from goal. What I did see that was better was the pressing from the front of the team. Bournemouth worked really hard just to win the ball high up the pitch. It made all the difference, because Brighton looked like the team that were taking risks at the back and not Bournemouth.

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How much energy and confidence can Bournemouth get from one win? It might not be as much as we'd like with Arsenal to play next in the FA Cup, but it is a free hit against Arsenal and the pressure will come on again when Bournemouth play Aston Villa at home. The Cherries have not done well against the teams around them and Howe will know they can't keep dropping points, especially at home.

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It's the old saying of making Dean Court a fortress. If the crowd can keep getting behind the team and giving the players that belief to put as much into games as they did against Brighton, they can fight their way up the league. The gaps are not enormous, but the sooner Bournemouth can string a few games together, the better their chances of getting the feeling that momentum is back with them.

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In other news, Jermain Defoe has signed a pre-contract to join Rangers from Bournemouth permanently this summer.

Will shortened Premier League parachute payments hit hard?

No club wants to be relegated from the Premier League and this week we heard news that there is an even bigger reason for teams to keep away from the dreaded bottom three, as the Guardian revealed that the period for payments being made for relegated clubs will be shortened from next season. While it is always a source of annoyance for Championship clubs to have to compete against fallen Premier League clubs with their extra cash to help them restructure in the lower league, it has now been decided that from the 2016-17 season, when the new TV deal comes in, relegated Premier sides who have just come up in 2014-15 will will miss out on a year of payments if they go straight back down.

It will be a steep fall for the clubs that slip out of the
Premier League in 2015-16. Fingers crossed it won't be AFCB among them.

This could have big implications for how money is spent on transfers this season for AFCB, Norwich and Watford. We have not seen any big transfer fees paid out from the Cherries yet and while the wages are hopefully also being kept a close eye on we might not see the new Premier League clubs splashing the cash in a big way to compete with the existing Premier League teams. Hull, QPR and Burnley will still receive £64 million each split over the next four years - £24m, £19.3, £9.6m and £9.6m.

In the 2016-17 season those parachute payments are expected to rise though from what is currently being offered so will teams that get relegated be worse off? I think it will just encourage them to be more careful with what they payout in terms of wages and transfer fees and with what they pay in the Championship. Shorter contracts might also be signed to allow restructuring of wages when clubs are relegated. I wonder though should some funds also come off the top clubs as well? I can understand the need to reward successful teams but is it also another way of stopping smaller sides from climbing the ladder and upsetting the status quo of the top clubs that continue to get richer? I'm all for distributing more of the Premier League revenue but this should this not be evenly spread across all 20 clubs?

It does make me think that perhaps the leading clubs have more reason to be happy with this agreement than those that have recently joined the Premier League. There is already more than one tier within the top league and this may just make it even harder for yo-yo clubs to try and make the transition to a club that manages to stay year after year in the Premier League.

Finally, Crystal Palace have announced that their U21 side will play AFCB's Development Squad on Tuesday 4 August - time and venue to be confirmed.