Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe may again opt to rotate his squad having made sweeping changes in both previous rounds of this season’s FA Cup.
Captain Tommy Elphick is unlikely to return, while Callum Wilson, Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel remain sidelined.
Everton have John Stones available following a recent hamstring injury.
January signing Oumar Niasse has picked up a minor wrist injury and may not be risked, while Mo Besic and Tyias Browning are both still absent.
Editor’s Note: It’s the only all Premier League tie Today in the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup and it’s fair to say that both sides will not to park all thoughts of that competition and see if they can continue on The Road to Wembley.
When these two sides met earlier in the season at The Vitality Stadium it produced a 6 goal thriller with Bournemouth snatching a point in the 98th Minute. If the game is only half as good in front of the T.V. cameras this evening then we should be in for a treat.
Last Weekend Bournemouth fell to Stoke at home 3-1. A much needed win for Stoke as they had lost 3 in a row before that but for Eddie Howe’s side that was a second straight defeat and the gap from the drop zone is becoming slightly smaller.
The still have a 4 point safety net at present as they sit 15th in the table but they still have some work to do before they can down tools and congratulate themselves on a job well done. That job being top flight survival.
Today they play host to an Everton side who are probably still wondering how they didn’t manage to win at home to West Brom on Saturday. When your side has 34 efforts at goal and you still come away as the losing side then you know that the luck is not on your side.
It certainly wasn’t smiling on Roberto Martinez last Saturday especially with Ross Barkley twice hitting the woodwork in the first half and then a hatful of chances being wasted to get themselves back into the game. That subsequent defeat sees them slip to 11th and below their Merseyside rivals Liverpool.
Before that they had won 3 games in a row in all competitions 3-0 including a routine win over Carlisle in the previous round and the pressure had come off Roberto Martinez slightly especially as the criticism that his side has been underachieving this season has been volleyed at him as of late.
But it seems this latest defeat has started the discontent off again and with the club currently sitting in the bottom half of the table it’s this cup competition that will offer their only possible hope of European Football next season.
Failure to secure that coupled with a possible takeover of the club could be the scenario where the writing is on the wall for Roberto Martinez and his 3 year tenure at Everton comes to an end. That is still someway in the horizon but it’s going to be an important few months for the man who won this competition back in 2012 with Wigan Athletic.
This tie could go either way as Bournemouth can use the tight ground to their advantage but the Defence does have a habit of letting them down at times then again the same could quite easily be said about Everton. I think Everton’s attack is just the slightly better of the two and I think that is what will edge the game. An away win for me.
