Leeds United surprise revealed by Bournemouth chief with defiant message from Cherries camp

O'Neil will take in his tenth game as interim Bournemouth boss when the Cherries visit Elland Road on Saturday afternoon as the two sides in 14th and 15th place in the Premier League table meet in West Yorkshire. Leeds went eight games without a win before sealing a brilliant 2-1 triumph in last weekend's clash at Liverpool but O'Neil says he has been impressed with Jesse Marsch's Whites and displays which he felt would have led to a higher league placing.

"I'm really surprised they are where they are in the league," said O'Neil of Leeds at his pre-match press conference. "I've looked and they come up really well on all the sort of numbers and stats and chances created. They have big energy, press really aggressively, probably the highest pressing team in the league so they have a real clear identity and a massive result at Anfield for them in the last game.

"It'll be a big test going to Elland Road, it's always a tough place to go, especially the way they play at the moment so front foot and so aggressive. It'll be a good test for us. What I've seen of Leeds, they press really high. They want to win the ball back high up the pitch. They've real pace in their team, especially in transition, so when they do win the ball back, they're a big threat. In those games they were unlucky not to win in my opinion. They performed well in all of those.”

First team Cherries coach O'Neil was handed the interim Bournemouth managerial reins at the end of August following the dismissal of Scott Parker in the aftermath of a 9-0 hiding at Liverpool. O'Neil then bagged two victories and four draws in his first four games in charge but Bournemouth's last three fixtures have ended in defeat, most recently via last weekend's 3-2 reverse at home to Tottenham Hotspur. O'Neil, though, has issued a defiant message about his side's recent run ahead of the trip to West Yorkshire.

"The group is absolutely fine," said O'Neil. "I think the fact that three losses have come on the trot doesn't mean anything to me. We have played nine Premier League games, we have been competitive in all of them, we’ve lost three and performances I think have always been what I expect from the lads generally for the whole nine games. We take a real clear of view on where we are, what we are trying to achieve and sometimes at this level losses are going to come in batches. Of course, we want to make sure that we get something from the weekend."

O'Neil added: "Obviously initially on Saturday there was huge disappointment from everyone, all of us, the squad, myself because of how it goes. But if you think back to the last time we played one of the big clubs in the Premier League, maybe Newcastle. But prior to that we had Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal and we never managed to lay a glove on them really whereas you look at the Tottenham game and it was very, very different to that so it shows our father the group has managed to come from from those moments.

"I think we took Tottenham very, very close. Of course, at the end of the game they pin us back and they bring on some real good players on the pitch but they still needed two set plays and I don't remember Travs ('keeper Mark Travers) making too many open play saves. There were a lot of positives in that Tottenham performance."