The stattos have been bigging up Bournemouth for a short while now, with their spectacular anticipated targets document at each ends of the pitch suggesting they might begin flying up the Premier League table if solely they might begin placing their many, many possibilities away.

Placing a mixed 9 targets previous Newcastle and Nottingham Forest in back-to-back video games is as robust a riposte as Bournemouth may probably have supplied to the pervasive feeling that their distinctly unclinical ending would go away them as Europa League hopefuls at finest. Their outcomes not too long ago have been shocking solely in that they’ve immediately discovered that killer end contact out of nowhere; in each different regard, Bournemouth are merely dwelling as much as the potential they’ve proven all season.

It’s lower than a month since Chelsea have been being touted because the most certainly aspect to push Liverpool to the top of the season (a good sufficient shot on the time), three weeks since we began truly taking Nottingham Forest’s top-four credentials critically (superb), and fewer than a fortnight since BBC Sport wrote a chunk asking if Newcastle ought to be thought-about title contenders (near laughable).

The one factor now probably standing in the best way of Bournemouth being thought-about reputable and persuasive Champions League contenders is the identify and the badge. Look past that, and Andoni Iraola’s aspect have put collectively maybe the strongest case of any of the 5 sides who at the moment look to be vying to join Liverpool and Arsenal in the Champions League next season.

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Bournemouth are actually degree on factors with Chelsea, only a level behind Newcastle and fourth-placed Manchester Metropolis, and have simply smashed Forest 5-0 to chop that specific hole right down to 4 factors.

The three longest extant Premier League unbeaten streaks are additionally the longest gathered by any sides over the course of the season: Liverpool 18, Arsenal 13, Bournemouth 11, with the Cherries final dropping again on November 23.

Since that defeat at residence to Brighton, Bournemouth (with 25 targets) have outscored everybody besides Liverpool (33) and Newcastle (28); conceded fewer (9) than anyone, degree with Arsenal’s famously tight and stable defence; and accrued the joint-most factors (25) of anyone within the division, matching Liverpool, Arsenal and now Forest.

At first of this unbeaten run, you may write it off as being partly the results of a sort run of fixtures; it began with Wolves, Tottenham, Ipswich, West Ham and Manchester United, in any case.

However their outcomes have solely obtained increasingly more spectacular from there, culminating of their back-to-back demolitions of Newcastle and Forest. In a mini-league of the highest seven golf equipment, Bournemouth (W3 D3 L2) would now be second to Liverpool (W3 D3 L1); they’d go prime of that desk in the event that they have been in a position to beat Arne Slot’s aspect subsequent weekend.

Even when they lose that sport, Bournemouth could have already performed all the sides above them within the desk residence and away aside from Arsenal and Manchester Metropolis. That will give them nominally the best run of remaining video games on paper of any of the 20 Premier League sides, with solely 5 extra fixtures nonetheless to play in opposition to present top-half sides.

The massive remaining query mark is whether or not these two super-clinical performances in entrance of objective over the previous couple of weekends can now turn into extra the rule for Bournemouth relatively than the exception – however get even midway there, and their chances are high nearly as good as anybody else’s. Higher, even.

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