When it rains it pours for Southampton, and in appropriately torrid conditions at St Mary’s on Thursday night, the Saints slipped ever closer to Championship football for the 2023-24 campaign as Gary O’Neil’s men came up trumps in the South-coast contest.
With 50 minutes on the clock, Marcus Taverniercut inside and let fly with a tame effort which found its way into the far corner, but Bournemouth survived a heart-in-mouth moment just a couple of minutes from time when a Che Adams strike was ruled out for a marginal offside.
Having made the short journey home with all three points in the bag, Bournemouth are sitting pretty in 14th place and seven points clear of the drop zone with just five games left to play, but O’Neil made it clear that the Cherries are not out of the woods yet while also expressing relief at a VAR decision finally going his side’s way.
Victory at St Mary’s remarkably represents a third Premier League away win on the bounce for the Cherries following previous successes at Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City.
but few Bournemouth fans will need reminding of last weekend’s 4-0 Vitality thrashing at the hands of West Ham United – a second successive home defeat without scoring for O’Neil’s side.
With Chelsea and Manchester United still to come before the curtain closes on the campaign, Bournemouth would do well to avoid a third successive home defeat for just the third time in their Premier League history, boosting their survival hopes while denting their visitors’ in the process.
The Elland Road faithful particularly enjoyed seeing James Maddison enjoy a fruitless start to Tuesday’s contest with Leicester, but the Foxes’ creator-in-chief ultimately had the last laugh, as Javi Gracia’s side failed to hang on to a slender lead in a low-scoring stalemate.
Causing Leicester all sorts of problems on the right flank, Jack Harrison whipped a cross to the back post for Luis Sinisterra to open the scoring in the first half, but a lightning-fast Leicester counter attack ended with Maddison laying off Jamie Vardyfor the latter’s first Premier League goal since October.
A frenetic end to the game saw Vardy have another goal ruled out for offside before Patrick Bamfordproduced one of the misses of the season from a yard out, as Leeds ended a three-game losing run in the top flight to entrench themselves in 16th place, still just one point better off than Leicester in the relegation zone.
Links >> Stream 1 HD Stream 2 HD Stream 3 HD Stream 4 HD
Sunday’s game arguably represents the Whites’ most winnable fixture between now and the end of the campaign – Manchester City, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur
are all lying in wait – but the travelling fans will not be encouraged by a record of four defeats from their last five on the road, and they have just one clean sheet to their name away from home all season.
On a more cheery note, Gracia’s side make the long journey south having scored in each of their last eight Premier League fixtures, and Bournemouth have only ever won one of their 14 competitive showdowns with Leeds, who were indebted to Crysencio Summerville’s dramatic late winner in a 4-3 Elland Road thriller back in November.
