Eddie Howe: ‘Bournemouth looking to emulate Crystal Palace’

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe today revealed the Premier League minnows are taking inspiration from Crystal Palace.

The Cherries are unbeaten in five Barclays Premier League outings after their famous win at Stamford Bridge came on the back of draws against Swansea and Everton.

A 2-1 victory at West Bromwich Albion last weekend followed on from impressive victories over Chelsea and Manchester United to leave Howe’s men 14th in the standings, but just four points above the bottom three.

“Alan Pardew is a nice guy first and foremost but he has managed some big clubs and it’s great to see him doing so well this season”.

Crystal Palace have won 35 away points in 2015 so far (W11 D2 L4) – only Arsenal (38) have won more on the road this calendar year in the Premier League.

“We now enter a key run of fixtures”.

Bournemouth have fewer injury concerns but the fitness of Joshua King, Lee Tomlin and Junior Stanislas (all hamstring) will be assessed before the match.

Crystal Palace travel to the south coast in good form themselves, finding them outside the Champions League places on goal difference alone.

Yohan Cabaye (ankle), Mile Jedinak (ankle), Bakary Sako (hamstring) and Conner Wickham (knock) all face late fitness tests for the Eagles, while Dwight Gayle (hamstring) definitely misses out.

“We have said we will look and try and make the right decisions for this football club”, Howe said.

“They have pace out wide, technical abilities in the middle of the pitch and they have some good centre forwards”. “It’s an exciting game for us because we are back at home and in front of our own supporters at Christmas”.