Saints make their shortest journey of the season looking to move into the top seven and make amends for last seasons debacle down in Boscombe.
Saints will feel that Bournemouth will offer a better chance to end the goal drought than any of our previous league games, the Cherries have scored a few goals themselves of late but in general they struggle to score and at the back they let in a few as well.
The style that Bournemouth employ though is not one that is aimed at keeping clean sheets but in taking the game to the opposition and wins such as their comeback against Liverpool have kept their heads above water, indeed without that win and their narrow victory over Leicester in midweek they would be firmly entrenched in a relegation battle rather than sitting in their highest ever league position in their history.
That says a lot about the difference between the two clubs, they are cock a hoop at being tenth on 21 points whereas Saints fans are up in arms about being ninth and ahead of them in goal difference.
That perhaps shows the progress that we have made over the past few seasons, but it should perhaps give us a sense of perspective.
The aim this afternoon is simple, we firstly want to see three points and secondly we want to see the side rediscover its goal touch.
We have players who are proven goal scorers, but it isn't working for us at the moment, scoring goals is like trying to pour bottle of Heinz Ketchup ( It has to be a decent brand to prove this point) sometimes you open the bottle and it just won't pour out, you bang and bang on the bottom but nothing happens ! Then all of a sudden a little bit comes out and that is followed by a massive deluge.
That is what is happening at the moment, we cannot buy a goal, but if we can get a couple suddenly that can all change and in a few weeks we will wonder what we where worried about.
After all that is exactly what happened last season at around this time.
So for Claude Puel it is a question of putting out his best side and getting it doing the right things, as I said there is not a lot wrong that a goal or two won't put right, we are getting nto the right areas, but the delivery and finish is just not there yet.
Of course there are those who say it will never be there unless we sign a striker in January, the next few weeks will show whether that is true, but the one thing we do know for sure is that we cannot do anything till January so until then there is no point in moaning about it and making the situation worse.
We need to get behind the team and make sure they can keep getting points even if we struggle, then if we do have to buy a striker in January the situation is not already terminal and a new man can come in and score goals that take us up into the top six not ensure that we finish mid table.
But meanwhile we go to Bournemouth with a job to do, if we do it we will be 7th and that should give us some perspective.
