AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth head to Hillsborough on Tuesday night as the only club in the top four divisions still unbeaten, but looking to turn draws into wins in their promotion push.
The Cherries start the penultimate round of fixtures before the international break third in the table after they fought back to win a point against Derby County at Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Rodrigo Riquelme was the hero, the Spaniard netting his first goal in professional football with a delightful volley late on, the Cherries now having drawn five of their league matches this season, to go with four wins.
In opposition in the Steel City on Tuesday night are the Championship's bottom side, Sheffield Wednesday still stuck on -4 points after four straight league defeats and a -12 point deficit to start the campaign.
The deduction was picked up for breaching financial rules, but after a bright start to the season, Garry Monk's team have struggled for both goals and wins.
As yet, no player has netted more than once for the side in the league and on Saturday the Owls narrowly lost away to Wycombe, the Chairboys' first ever win in the second tier.
Ahead of the 7pm kick-off in South Yorkshire, afcb.co.uk caught up with Dom Howson, Sheffield Wednesday writer at YorkshireLive.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY IN PROFILE
Manager: Garry Monk (appointed September 2019)
Club captain: Barry Bannan
Last game: Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday (Championship)
Leading goalscorer 2020/21: Josh Windass (two in total, one in the Championship)
League position: 16th
Past six league results: DWLLLL
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afcb.co.uk: How has the 12-point deduction affected Wednesday at the start of this season?
DH: The side actually made a pretty positive start, picking up four points from the first two matches, keeping clean sheets away to Cardiff and at home to Watford.
The team seemed to have a togetherness and a bit of steel, things seemed fairly positive and Garry Monk tried to create a siege mentality in the group with the points deduction.
He talked about the size of the challenge and having to make up the points difference, but in the last four or five matches confidence has been hit, the goals have dried up, the results have not gone the right way and the manager is under increasing pressure.
afcb.co.uk: What's been going wrong for the side in recent weeks?
DH: When we went into lockdown the first time around it may have been a blessing in disguise for the team as they were on a horrible run and that gave Monk some time to take stock and evaluate.
Then after the restart in June he switched to a 3-5-2 which gave a bit more solidity to the side.
They've now got a points deduction and psychologically they've got to be able to handle that and I think if they were starting on a level playing field most people would be thinking that they would be a mid-table team.
The players say the points deduction isn't playing on their minds but most people would say that when you're under that pressure to win games and you've still not got a positive points tally when we're now in November it's a very difficult situation for everyone at the club.
afcb.co.uk: What has the mood been like at Hillsborough in the last few weeks?
DH: They've been unlucky in the last half a dozen games in that they've lost key players, including Tom Lees, Dominic Iorfa and Massimo Luongo - who's probably been the outstanding player, but he's been absent since the win at Birmingham in October.
After that game things were looking up, it was positive and people were buying into what Monk is trying to build with a level of optimism.
But the results in what you'd have to say was, on paper at least, a winnable run of fixtures against Luton, Rotherham and Wycombe haven't been good.
They haven't scored a goal, they've taken one point and the gap's gone up again to getting out of the relegation zone.
They haven't won a home match since February and that's why these two home matches this week take on added significance.
afcb.co.uk: The side lost to Wycombe at the weekend, what was the view of that from on the ground?
DH: It was a better performance than the one against Rotherham, put it that way.
Against a Wycombe team struggling for goals who had never won in the Championship before, it was a physical, bruising match and they were a very direct team.
For the most part Wednesday stood up to them pretty well but individual errors and defensive mistakes have crept back in and they conceded from a corner on the stroke of half time.
They huffed and puffed, dominated the ball but didn't really create any clear-cut opportunities, only forcing the goalkeeper into two or three saves, the sort you'd expect him to make.
It's that creativity in the final third that's lacking, and Monk said after the match that they do lack a killer edge right now.
He's brought in his own players in the last few months, nine players in total, but he hasn't been able to consistently turn results around.
afcb.co.uk: What would your score prediction be?
DH: You want to be positive. There has to be a reaction and they need a result, so I'll say a draw, 1-1.
You can follow Dom on Twitter – @domhowson
Officials: Jeremy Simpson (referee), Richard Wild (assistant), Wade Smith (assistant), Michael Salisbury (fourth official).
