Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth aren’t out of the woods just yet

With a 10-point buffer to the drop zone, Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth are looking pretty ripe, but we don’t think the Cherries are totally safe just yet.

Granted, we make the south coast outfit 40/1 to return to the Championship. In short, it’s highly unlikely.

But with one win in six, Bournemouth can’t count their Dean Court chickens just yet.

Only four teams have claimed fewer points than the Cherries in that spell, and only Swansea City have conceded more goals.

Indeed, of Bournemouth’s last eight games, their only two wins have come at strugglers Swansea and at home to poor travellers Leicester City.

And with a defence conceding three goals in five of those fixtures, that 10-point gap might yet shrink. By how much remains to be seen.

Go back to the 3-1 loss to Arsenal and the Bournemouth back-line has been beaten three times in seven of their last 10 games.

Plus, Howe must also lead his men to face six of the top seven, including trips to Goodison Park, Old Trafford, Anfield and White Hart Lane.

Visits to St Mary’s and the Hawthorns won’t be easy either.

It’s highly likely that Bournemouth’s 10-point barrier won’t be so big come the end of the season, but will they have done enough?

And of course, from here on in we can expect at least two or three of this season’s relegation contenders to start picking up points.

Marco Silva has already made an impressive impact at Hull, while Paul Clement led Swansea to a famous victory at Liverpool on Saturday.

And with Crystal Palace under the tutelage of Sam Allardyce, a man whose record at avoiding the drop is unrivalled, then suddenly things aren’t that comfortable at all for Bournemouth.

It all means there is plenty on the line when the Cherries next take to Premier League action, a week on Tuesday.

And with Palace the visitors, this fixture isn’t just mightily important for the visitors.

The odds suggest Bournemouth are staying up, but there is plenty to suggest that their 10-point barrier will be eroded in the months to come. So will they have done enough?

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing