'Could be relegated' - Gary O'Neil on Leeds United difficulty and Bournemouth safety tally view

O’Neil’s side booted themselves seven points clear of the Premier League drop zone with Thursday night’s 1-0 win at Southampton which has left the Cherries in 14th place with just five games left and as big as 66-1 to go down.

O’Neil, though, insists that even Bournemouth’s current tally of 36 points which is six points more than Sunday’s fifth-bottom visitors Leeds might not be enough for survival and fired a warning about the difficulties facing his side in Sunday’s 2pm kick-off against the Whites.

For Bournemouth, Thursday night’s win at St Mary’s followed last weekend’s 4-0 home hammering from West Ham United which itself came on the back of a 3-2 victory at Tottenham Hotspur.

Asked at his pre-match press conference if Thursday night’s victory at Southampton might affect decisions on potentially rotating his side, O’Neil insisted: “No I don't think so. I don't feel any more comfortable at all. I still feel like at this moment in time we could be relegated so let's approach the game exactly in that way, try and get the best team out there for energy and also for quality. There'll be no rotation that wouldn't have taken place in any other scenario. It will be business as usual from team selection wise."

"I think maybe the world felt when we left the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that we were fine. And then you get a performance against West Ham where we let ourselves down so I think that's a real good lesson for the boys around achieving a good result that everyone thinks means that you're okay and everything's good and everything's rosy and then you get a real kick up the backside a few days later.

"We learned that lesson last week and hopefully that prepares us well for what will be a tough ask against Leeds. To go off the back of such a huge effort on Thursday night, two days less recovery against a very intense team will be a big test again for the boys come Sunday."

Pressed on Leeds losing three of their last four and how Bournemouth could impose themselves on the Whites, O’Neil reasoned: "I haven't seen loads of Leeds. Obviously it's been Southampton and West Ham prep mainly this week but then I'll have more of a detailed look at them and see how and why.

"But for us, I think just making sure that we start the game well, because we have conceded some early goals recently and we were out of our last home game before it started so making sure that we are ready. The boys are going to be extremely tired this morning going for a recovery session as we speak so they'll be tired. There needs to be a lot of work done in a short space of time to make sure that we turn up right from the start.

"We don't have time to ease ourselves into this one. Leeds play in an intense way and they'll have seen the start against West Ham, I'm sure and there'll be keen to come and pose themselves in front of our crowd and try and make it an awkward afternoon for us so real focus from me on trying to get the boys ready to start off all guns blazing at two o'clock on Sunday."