Cherries not safe yet, say star and boss

Bournemouth midfielder Harry Arter is refusing to think the Cherries are safe from relegation, but says the club should be looking up the table, not down.

The South Coast side all but banished any lingering fears about survival with victory at Middlesbrough last weekend.

Eddie Howe’s side now sit on 38 points – seven clear of the bottom three – ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Sunderland.

And while their tally should be enough to see them playing Premier League football next season, Arter says they won’t be taking their foot off the pedal.

“We are reluctant to say we have done enough, because you can end up going down and looking silly,” said Arter.

“We performed really well against Middlesbrough last weekend, the pressure was on us to get a result and now we are looking up the table, rather than behind us.

“It comes from the players. The manager deserves a lot of credit but the lads work so hard. We respond and listen to what he wants us to do.

“Even though we had a couple of poor results – albeit they were against Chelsea and Tottenham – we still had so much confidence in each other and in what we do here.”

Howe, himself, isn’t getting carried away either, and has challenged his players to surpass last year’s points tally, when they racked up 42 in their first season in the Premier League.

He said: “I’ve always said our aim is to surpass last season’s points tally – we have more points to get and want to finish the season well.

“We are not safe yet, we’re closing in on last season’s total, but if we play like we did v Boro in the remaining games we will be fine.”