Who would ever have predicted that AFCB would arrive at St Mary's as favourites.

This is going to be a difficult preview to write, difficult in that whatever i put it will sound patronising to Bournemouth, but Cherries fans can rest assured that this is not deliberate, there is jjust no other way to write it.

They arrive at St Mary's in fine form sitting second in the league, winning three out of the last four league games, however Saints fans can take heart, their lofty position has been built mainly on home form (OK ours has been on away form so that could even things out) 

So far Bournemouth have won four of their five home matches, drawing 1 against Notts County, but away from home its a different story, defeats at mid table Charlton & Oldham, were bolstered by a win at Tranmere plus a draw, a very good one you have to say at Huddersfield, but the form guide shows us that at home they are unstoppable, but on the road average and this should perhaps give us hope that the result of this game is far from clear cut.

Of course our home form is terrible, without a win in the opening four league games at SMS, but we are certainly in better shape now than we were in those games, we have Lallana back and Guly is also showing us that he is better than we thought, add Richard Chaplow and we might just be starting to get a few bases covered.

I would expect to see changes on Saturday, I have said before that I think our best back four is not playing at the moment for several rreasons, and i would hope to see at least two of them back in the team, the best centre back pairing is Fonte & Martin and i would hope to se them both start, however to drop Jaidi would be slightly unfair so i would expect to see him paired with Fonte at the least.

In midfield the only real question will be is Lallana fit enough to start, i would guess he isnt quite there yet and that we would go with the usual four, although NA might just spring a surprise and put Guly in, if he doesnt though and it is the starting four from the last two games, then just olook at the fire power we will have off the bench.

Lallana, Chaplow, Guly, Dickson, Holmes, Martin Bialkowski, how about that for options.

The weak link at the moment is up front, Lambert needs a goal desperately and to be fair in the last three games he hs been unlucky in not to have scored in each of them, for strikers getting goals are like getting tomato ketchup out of a bottle, sometimes you have to keep banging away with nothing coming out, then when they finally come, they come pouring out, Saints fans hope that Lambert makes Bournemouth pay.

The key striker at present is Lee Barnard, problem is he seems to be carrying a little bit of a niggle meaning that he is struggling to get through 90 minutes, problem is we cant afford to be without him at present, we need SRL to take the pressure off him.  

Saints do have a new vigour about them and whilst the Cherries have won two and lost one of their last three, we are unbeaten in the same spell, we now need to score that vital home win and build on the last trio of fixtures, all of which have seen Saints dominate but sstill show chinks in their armour.

Foe Bournemouth it is a big game no matter what their supporters will say, to them they have no other rivals, for us we of course have Pompey so arent rreally interested, however that will all be forgotten at 3pm on Saturday and all that will matter will be winning, no matter what team you support.

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