Bournemouth

I was at St James' Park on Wednesday and Newcastle were brilliant in their 5-0 win over Crystal Palace, especially on the break.

The Eagles should really have levelled after going 1-0 down, but Eberechi Eze made a mess of his penalty and the game was over by half-time.

It has been a bad week for Palace, who also conceded five goals against Manchester City on Saturday, and how can I back them after they have shipped 10 goals in two games?

I am not exactly convinced by Bournemouth either, though. They ended a poor run by beating Fulham on Monday but they have looked a little tired of late, and don't have as much firepower as Newcastle or Manchester City.

My concern about Palace is how passive they looked against the Magpies. They need a response to that poor performance, and I think we might get one from them at Selhurst Park. Surely Eze can't play as badly again.

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Karan Vinod
BBC Sport journalist

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at Crystal Palace (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Iraola confirmed forward Justin Kluivert will be available and other players "should also be fine". However, winger Luis Sinisterra will be out.

• He praised Kepa Arizabalaga and said the goalkeeper made his side "feel safe", adding that it is not always about making great saves. Iraola pointed to Kepa's experience as it brings "confidence and assurance" to the squad.

• The Spaniard said he has determined his starting centre-back pairing for the game - but was unwilling to disclose the information.

• Iraola is also happy with the points tally accrued by his players so far this season and stated that it was "one of their goals".

• On Palace: "They are coming in a great run of results. They want to control the games very well. They don't concede a lot and they are very well organised, so it is not easy to play against them. They have individual players who can make the difference."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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Former Bournemouth defender Steve Cook spoke to BBC Radio Solent about the current defenders at the club: "At such a young age, they are playing with such a maturity and I think the recruitment in that department has been amazing.

"I have played with some good centre-halves in my time, but to play with them would have been amazing.

"It's a great back four, and I thought Adam Smith was superb [against Fulham]. He has been out for a long time and come in and put up a performance - that sums up his professionalism and is a great representative of the club."

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Bournemouth are winless in their past 10 Premier League games in London, since a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace in December 2023.

Each of their past four games in the capital have all ended 2-2 in draws against Fulham, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham this season.

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Former Bournemouth defender Joe Partington spoke to BBC Radio Solent's Cherries: Unpicked podcast about reports linking Cherries boss Andoni Iraola with Tottenham.

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou has come under pressure in recent weeks - his side are 15th in the Premier League, seven spots below Bournemouth.

"Iraola is doing a wonderful job at Bournemouth," Partington said.

"He did a wonderful job at his previous club too, and I suppose the natural progression of a manager who does well at the clubs who aren't deemed as being 'bigger' clubs is being hunted by those bigger clubs."

Speaking further, he said: "There are some clubs in the UK at the moment which are difficult to manage. Tottenham is one of them, Manchester United is another one. There are clubs underperforming.

"If you are one of those clubs who believes they should be near the top of the Premier League and you're looking at the clubs that maybe shouldn't, Bournemouth is probably one of them. And then you look at the manager [Iraola] and the impact he's had, not just on the pitch but certainly off it as well, you want that - that is something you seek to try to achieve.

"Maybe Tottenham are the club that Iraola believes is the opportunity he needs to showcase himself at the top of the game, but it's a very difficult place to go in and do well, as many other managers who have been very successful have found recently."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

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The latest episode of BBC Radio Solent's Cherries: Unpicked podcast has landed.

The team look back over Bournemouth's win against Fulham, debate the Cherries' chances of qualifying for European football and discuss boss Andoni Iraola's future.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport senior journalist

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Just when a run of six Premier League games without a win had threatened to derail Bournemouth's season, the Cherries moved firmly back on track with Monday's 1-0 win over Fulham which lifted them to eighth place on goal difference, and back in the mix for potential European qualification.

The complicated mathematical conundrum of 'how many English teams can qualify for Europe' has been made a little clearer with confirmation of a fifth Champions League slot, while Aston Villa's elimination from the top-tier Uefa competition on Tuesday leaves Arsenal as the Premier League's sole remaining representative.

The second-placed Gunners hold a nine-point advantage over sixth place with six games left, leaving the 'what if Arsenal win the Champions League but finish outside the top five' permutation receding into improbability.

So, five teams for the Champions League, sixth place for the Europa League, and – making the assumption that Newcastle, with their game in hand, might also expect to finish in the top six – the Magpies' Conference League spot (for winning the EFL Cup) should go to seventh place.

Or, potentially lower. The four FA Cup semi-finalists are Nottingham Forest (3rd), Manchester City (5th), Villa (7th) and Crystal Palace (12th). So, as things stand, any of the first three of those teams lifting the Cup would drop Conference League qualification to eighth place.

While the six-point gap between seventh and eighth looks challenging with only six games left, Bournemouth, Fulham and Brighton are locked on 48 points between eighth and 10th – so it will not just be Brighton's long-established rivalry with Palace making sure that this trio of teams will hope anyone other than the Eagles lifts the FA Cup.

That said, those last half-dozen games are far from straightforward for Andoni Iraola's Cherries, who face Palace, Manchester United, Arsenal, Villa, Manchester City and Leicester.

However, the only one of those teams to defeat Bournemouth in the reverse fixtures earlier this season was… seemingly relegation-doomed Leicester, which just shows how trying to make any sort of prediction at this stage of the season is almost impossible!

Bournemouth are resigned to losing Dean Huijsen this summer, but the defender would prefer a move to another Premier League club over a switch to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. (Talksport), external

Tottenham have identified Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, Fulham boss Marco Silva and Brentford head coach Thomas Frank as candidates to replace Ange Postecoglou should he be dismissed. (Teamtalk), external

However, Iraola is likely to snub the chance to join Spurs in favour of remaining at Bournemouth, as the Cherries eye playing European football next season. (Telegraph - subscription required), external

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Sam Davis
Fan writer

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Bournemouth have a plethora of goalkeepers on their books and the future is bright, as there is excitement around young stoppers Callan McKenna and Alex Paulsen, the latter currently out on loan with Auckland.

Moving up the chain, both experienced keeper Neto and the ever reliable Mark Travers are out on loan at Arsenal and Middlesbrough respectively, plus the club still have Will Dennis as first team cover.

However, it is Chelsea loanee Kepa Arrizabalaga who has been the ever-present between the sticks this campaign, so should the Cherries do all they can to secure him permanently in the summer?

Kepa still stands as the world's most expensive goalkeeper having moved to Chelsea for around 80m euros in 2018, so it was seen as a real coup from Bournemouth to grab the Spaniard on loan for this season. Andoni Iraola was clearly a key factor having both worked together previously at Athletic Bilbao, so providing Iraola stays put (please), then it feels as if this is a deal that can get done.

Chelsea would reportedly take a low transfer fee to get Kepa off their wage bill and Bournemouth are expected to cash in on Travers and also to allow Neto to depart, so a first-choice keeper will more than likely be needed.

Elsewhere, there are plenty of rumours circulating involving other keepers like Liverpool's Caomhin Kelleher and ex-Cherry Aaron Ramsdale, but maybe the ideal solution is already at the club in Kepa.

The win against Fulham underlined his importance to us, and his experience and calm nature in nets has been evident. Although he has made a few costly errors, on the whole he's been an upgrade and looks set to be a part of Bournemouth's greatest ever Premier League campaign.

Find more from Sam Davis at Back of the Net, external

Chris Wise
5 Live commentator at Vitality Stadium

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Bournemouth's backline has been at the forefront of Andoni Iraola's mind for a number of weeks now. On multiple occasions, he has highlighted not just the number of goals they've conceded, but perhaps more the manner in which they've been conceding them. That's why the clean sheet in the win over Fulham would have meant so much to him.

Iraola made a big call in leaving out Ilia Zabarnyi on Monday night. It was the first time he'd ever chosen to drop the Ukrainian defender. Zabarnyi has set a very high bar for himself since his arrival at Bournemouth, and his performances in recent week haven't hit his usual mark.

Marcos Senesi stepped in against Fulham, but he had a difficult first-half, so much so that Iraola had to swallow his initial decision to drop Zabarnyi as he then brought him on at half-time in Senesi's place.

That was a perfect example of Iraola's decisiveness. He wasn't afraid to drop Zabarnyi initially, but then didn't leave Senesi on the pitch longer than he needed to just because of his principles. That's something Iraola should be praised for.

And then across the backline, there's the very real prospect of both Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez departing Bournemouth this summer. Kerkez in particular was excellent again last night. He's quickly emerged as one of the Premier League's best full-backs, and is going to be mightily hard to replace if he does leave Vitality Stadium.

There's more than a few defensive headaches going on for Iraola right now.

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We asked for your thoughts after Monday's Premier League game between Bournemouth and Fulham.

Here are some of your comments:

Bournemouth fans

Matt: Quick out of the blocks but then we came up against quality opposition. We rode our luck several times, having not extended our lead, and a dogged performance in the second half ground out the vital win. Kepa was a deserved man of the match recipient.

Nick: Straight off attacking, as per usual. An unlucky miss off the woodwork, that has happened 21 times this season. Our second half performance was probably just us protecting our fine goal scored in the first minute of the game, The tactics were the best part. Well deserved.

Wing Lam: We showcased how strong we are in terms of pulling Fulham in all directions in the first half and we could have easily been 2-0 up at half-time. After the break, we showed incredible resilience to keep a clean sheet, particularly when Fulham have a deeper squad to call on to attack us. The consequence was a superb 1-0 win. Long may this continue. We should secure a European spot if we keep this up!

Tony: We looked very tired and gave the ball away too easily.

Fulham fans

Will: That might be that for our European football hopes. There are still a few games left, but the desire seems to be slipping away and fast.

David: There were far too many misplaced passes and weak attempts on goal. A lack of consistency is hurting our European football ambitions. At least Bernd Leno was on-form to prevent any more goals from Bournemouth. However, our up and down performances might lead to us beating Chelsea on Sunday. A double over them would make many fan's season.

Mark: Fulham have improved from last year, but I'd personally put that down to good transfer business rather than Silva himself.

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Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "It was a big win. We needed to win this game and I am very pleased with how we won. Especially defensively because that is what has kept us out of the points lately and a clean sheet against a team like Fulham is very important. We defended really well, still created our chances and scored our goal.

"In the last few weeks we have conceded a couple of set plays and poor goals to concede that we hadn't been conceding all season. In the last few games the opponents were scoring two goals and when you concede two goals it is very difficult to win a Premier League game.

On the half time change: "Now we have centre-backs available it is always a difficult decision. Marcos [Senesi], Dean [Huijsen] and Zaba [Zabarnyi] have all been performing so well this season so it was hard to leave Zaba out. I thought the game was good for Marcos, he is very good in the press and the build up and dealing with players between the lines. After the yellow card I did not want to take any risks."

On matching last season's points tally: "It is one of the goals that we have. We have the first chance to beat it against Crystal Palace on Saturday. It is not going to be easy, every point you get is expensive but we are in a good place."

• With his eighth goal of the Premier League season, Bournemouth goal-scorer Antoine Semenyo has now matched his best-ever return for a single league campaign, level with his tally for the Cherries last season and also 2021-22 with Bristol City in the Championship.