by Bulldog Drummond
And so to the seaside, where Bournemouth have been given a £7.6m fine for breaching Football League Financial Fair Play rules after accruing losses in their season en route to Premier League promotion. The rules were instituted specifically to stop clubs running up such debts with the idea of paying them off once they were in the Premier League.
The Football League do not confirm such fines, but Bournemouth were forced to enter the debt in their company accounts which of course are made public. These show they made a £38.3m loss in winning the Championship in 2014/15. That was in addition to the £10.3m loss the previous season. Their wage bill alone was over double the club’s annual turnover of £12.9m.
Championship sides are only allowed losses of up to £6m for a season and of late Bolton, Fulham and Nottingham Olympiacos have been placed under transfer embargoes for similar offences.
Of course to find the most outrageous breach of the rules one normally only has to look at the reign of Arry Redknapp, and this is of course the case with QPR where they are still arguing about their £58m fine (reported in some quarters as £40m).
QPR lost £135m in two years – and like Bournemouth in 2013/14 when they got promotion their wage bill was double their turnover and the last time we looked their debt was £200m.
Leicester’s fate is still uncertain after they sold sponsorship rights to a company based in a backwater industrial estate miles from the club, which sold them back to owners of the club!!! The League is reported to be not amused, and they are still trying to unravel what on earth Leicester thought they were playing at with a ploy so obvious my cat spotted in while reading the Sunday press. (Mind you my cat is pretty bright. For a cat).
But back to debt laden Bournemouth and our regular comparison of home and away results. Here is the home games table with Bournemouth lurking in 16th out of 20, having won just three, drawn three and lost five. 14 goals scored and 17 conceded. They don’t have the lowest number of goals scored – Swansea, Newcastle and Burnley have all scored under 10, but even so it is just over one goal per game.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 8 | 31 | 31 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 5 | 19 | 26 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 12 | 15 | 26 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 7 | 14 | 25 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 21 | 4 | 17 | 23 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 22 | 9 | 13 | 22 |
| 7 | Everton | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 19 |
| 8 | Leicester City | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 14 | 2 | 17 |
| 9 | Burnley | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 17 |
| 10 | Huddersfield Town | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 16 |
| 11 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 14 | -2 | 15 |
| 12 | West Ham United | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 15 | -3 | 14 |
| 13 | Stoke City | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 20 | -7 | 14 |
| 14 | Southampton | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 17 | -3 | 13 |
| 15 | Crystal Palace | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 18 | -4 | 13 |
| 16 | AFC Bournemouth | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 17 | -3 | 12 |
As for away form, this is far from being a perfect season for Arsenal away from home and Arsenal remain in 9th with only a slightly better set of results than Bournemouth at home – three wins four draws and four defeats.
Like Bournemouth at home, Arsenal have a goal difference away of minus three.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 5 | 20 | 31 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 21 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 21 | 8 | 21 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 19 |
| 6 | Burnley | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 17 |
| 7 | Leicester City | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 13 |
| 8 | Watford | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 17 | 17 | 0 | 13 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 16 | -3 | 13 |
| 10 | Newcastle United | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -6 | 11 |
Bournemouth entered a period of decline in late November, going nine without a win in League and League Cup matches. But in the last four they have picked up somewhat with three draws and a win
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 25 Nov 2017 | Swansea City v AFC Bournemouth | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 29 Nov 2017 | AFC Bournemouth v Burnley | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 03 Dec 2017 | AFC Bournemouth v Southampton | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 09 Dec 2017 | Crystal Palace v AFC Bournemouth | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 13 Dec 2017 | Manchester United v AFC Bournemouth | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 17 Dec 2017 | AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool | L | 0-4 | Premier League |
| 20 Dec 2017 | Chelsea v AFC Bournemouth | L | 2-1 | League Cup |
| 23 Dec 2017 | Manchester City v AFC Bournemouth | L | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Dec 2017 | AFC Bournemouth v West Ham United | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
| 30 Dec 2017 | AFC Bournemouth v Everton | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 01 Jan 2018 | Brighton and Hove Albion v AFC Bournemouth | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 06 Jan 2018 | AFC Bournemouth v Wigan Athletic | D | 2-2 | FA Cup |
During these last four games they have scored nine goals; a considerable improvement over their earlier form where they scored one goal in four, so the largess of the likes of West Ham, Everton, Brighton and Wigan has certainly helped them.
But, there is another issue: their last match was against the might Wigan of Division One. Although to be fair Wigan are top of Division One and are the top scoring team in that league with 50 goals in 25 games.
More on the match anon.
- How would the table if we’d had accurate VAR all season. And Bournemouth v Arsenal 14 Jan The Match Officials
- Perhaps the most horrific report I have ever read in 10 years of running Untold
- 10 years of untold: all the corruption stories and we just keep on keeping on
The already relegation threatens Eddy Howe’s AFC Bournemouth club side will see themselves further plunged into the deeper dept of relegation after the Premier League match encounter between them and Arsenal is played tomorrow at the Dean Court Stadium.
Let me say this beforehand for all and sundry of both the Cherries and the Gunners supporters to hear. No amount of begging of Le Boss by Eddy Howe, the Cherries manager begging him to instruct his Gunners team that he’ll play against the Cherries tomorrow to play a draw game in the match will be accepted by Le Boss so that Bournemouth will get a point in the match to ease off some pressure on Eddy Howe from the Bournemouth board whose dangling axe may fall on him after this match is played and the Cherries did not get a result.
Despite the fact that this match will not be co-refereed by the VAR with Kevin Friend, Arsenal have nothing to fear as to whether the PGMO has ordered referee Kevin Friend and his 2 match assistants to do anti-Arsenal match referring officiating during the game. For, I believe referee Kevin Friend is always a friend to any team playing in the Premier League. In this regard, he won’t constitute an emeny to Bournemouth nor Arsenal in the game tomorrow but will be fair to both parties as he applies the rules and regulations guiding match officiating in the PL irrespective of whether the PGMO gave him an order to obey or not.
Final scores at full–time including the added time is: AFC Bournemouth 0-3 Arsenal FC.
Antonio Conte’s Blues team playing a goal less draw game with Leicester at the Bridge this afternoon is a good tidings for Arsenal to capitalize on it in their match tomorrow against AFC Bournemouth by beating them to close the gap on Chelsea to 5 points in the table which is still big for my liking in this battle for the 4th place table finish this season.