
Another Premier League season has drawn to a close, and here at Zarb times we shall be doing season reviews for every club. Today we will be starting with AFC Bournemouth.
AFC Bournemouth
Started August slowly, picking up only one point from three games. They then went on a run of 6 games where they only lost once, and notbaly beat Hull City 6-1, as well as held Tottenham Hotspur to a 0-0 draw at home. They then disappointingly lost back-to-back games against Middlesbrough and Sunderland. In the first half of the season, another notable result was beating Liverpool 4-3 after coming from 2-0 and 3-1 down.
The loss of Nathan Ake, who had performed impressively in the first half of the season and was at the heart of their success in this spell, had a huge impact. This could be seen as they went on an 8-game winless run at the beginning of 2017. This provided a huge test, in particular for manager Eddie Howe, but he stuck to his guns and his approach paid off. The big turning point during this run was when they went to Old Trafford and picked up a 1-1 draw, despite going down to 10 men, and ended the season impressively, to the extent that they secured a top-half finish. Huge credit should go to manager Eddie Howe for masterminding this success, and I personally believe that he deserves a job with a bigger club, whilst I also believe that he is the best English manager currently around.
Their defence will need strengthening next season, especially as they had a tendency to throw away leads (most notably when they lead Arsenal 3-0 and ended up drawing 3-3) if they are to maintain their success - for the statistics they conceded 67 goals, only 4 teams conceded more (Hull City, Swansea City, Sunderland and Watford). Scoring didn't seem to be an issue, for that matter they scored 55 goals. Another key move would be turning Jack Wilshere's loan spell into a permanent one. On the whole, a highly successful season.