AFC Bournemouth make the trip to Turf Moor to take on Burnley in the Premier League this weekend. Ahead of the fixture afcb.co.uk spoke to the Burnley Express’ Sports Editor Chris Boden to find out what the Cherries can expect from Sean Dyche’s side.
afcb.co.uk: What have you made of Burnley's start to the season?
CB: The complications of the Europa League, the amount of games and travelling that brings with it hasn’t helped matters. In a way, Burnley’s success last season was founded on consistency in team selection. With the extra games this season, they’ve had to rotate players and haven’t had the same understanding. Combine that with a disappointing transfer window and it has added up to what you’ve seen so far.
afcb.co.uk: Is there perhaps a sense of relief that the club are no longer in Europe, so they can focus fully on the Premier League?
CB: There’s a section of the support who just want to get on with the bread and butter of staying in the Premier League, where the prize money is. I think there was disappointment though that the team didn’t quite make it to the group stage of the Europa League. It feels like they weren’t in the tournament as they didn’t get to that stage.
I think it’s a bit of both relief and disappointment. The players, managers, and fans would have quite liked to get to the group stage, but there’s the realisation that - at least from a business point of view - it has to be the priority to stay in the Premier League.
afcb.co.uk: What’s the mood among the Burnley supporters regarding Sean Dyche’s position at the club?
CB: You get the odd fan on social media asking for change, but I’d imagine 99.9 percent of Burnley fans know not to doubt what the manager has achieved over a long period. Whenever anyone has doubted him or his team, they’ve always delivered. I think a lot of Burnley fans would say Dyche is the best manager the club has had since the great Harry Potts in the 1960s. There will certainly be a bit of patience with him.
afcb.co.uk: Looking ahead to this weekend’s game, Bournemouth won 2-1 in this fixture at the end of last season. How do you see it shaping up this time around?
CB: I expect it to be a difficult game for Burnley based on Bournemouth’s form and the way they’ve started the season. It looks like quite a fluid system that Bournemouth are using. There’s a great deal of pace there as well and I think a lot of Burnley fans will be hoping at the very least not to lose the game, then try to build from there.
Chris is on Twitter, @bodenknights.
