Ahead of the visit of Leicester City, interim head coach Gary O’Neil faced the press.
Here are three things we learned…
1. O’Neil knows his stuff
Gary O’Neil has been working for the Cherries since February 2021 and he clearly knows his stuff when it comes to the club.
In an answer where he admits the club are used to be underdogs, O’Neil referenced the famous night at the Winter Gardens in 1997.
On that night, 2,000 fans piled into the venue and raised enough money to keep the club afloat.
O’Neil said: “I think this club, even if you go back a long way, back to the Winter Garden meetings and things, is used to being underdogs and we strive and we succeed, we're really comfortable with that.
“One of our big strengths is that this club has always managed to find a way to fight against the odds.
“Most games at this level we're going to be underdogs, and that's fine from outside, but that's not what we believe in the changing room.
“We're always ready, we believe we can be competitive and Leicester coming here gives us another opportunity to hopefully show how strong and resilient we are defensively, but also to cause them problems.”
2. He expects a tough challenge from Leicester
Leicester City have had a tough start to the Premier League season but returned to form in emphatic style on Monday.
The Foxes put four past Nottingham Forest to secure their first win of the season and O’Neil is expecting a difficult encounter.
He commented: "I think having watched all their games they were very unfortunate to be on one point before the Forest game.
"Against Man United [a 1-0 defeat] they were dominant. They controlled the ball, a really good side.
"They were very, very good away at Tottenham [a 6-2 defeat], they lost very late on but were the dominant side.
"They're a very good team. The result against Nottingham Forest didn't surprise me.
"I thought that was coming for them. I expected them to turn it around and I don't expect them to be anywhere near the bottom of the table come the end of the season.
"Looking at how they've played the last few weeks, they've got a top coach, top players, so it's going to be a real test for us."
3. Senesi is impressing
Argentinian defender Marcos Senesi has been a key member of O’Neil’s side in recent weeks, earning man of the match in the game with Brentford last weekend.
The summer signing arrived at Vitality Stadium with plenty of hype and Cherries fans are starting to see the ability that made him one of the most sought-after players in Europe.
Speaking about the 25-year-old, O’Neil said: “He’s made loads of progress!
“He’s come from a team and a league where the football is very different to what he was going to come up against here.
“We’ve had to work hard with him to help him adapt and to go to St James’ Park and put in the performance he did, to come up against Ivan Toney and some of the pressure that Brentford put up to him, he’s come a long way in the last few weeks and he’s going to continue to improve.”
