Bournemouth look to build on Arsenal victory

FC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe believes that his players will be more confident heading into today’s FA Cup 3rd round replay against Wigan Athletic.

In the first round at the Vitality stadium, Bournemouth fought back from 2 goals down to force a replay against the Latics.

But this the Cherries are coming off the back of a fantastic 2-1 victory over Arsenal, where goals from Callum Wilson and Jordan Ibe cancelled out Arsenal’s opener from Hector Bellerin.

In Tuesday’s press conference, when questioned about added extra pressure on his team to overcome Paul Cook’s Wigan side since Sunday’s victory, Howe said “I think there is always that pressure that you speak about, that you are expected to win, certainly from my perspective I put that pressure on myself anyway, no matter who we play to get a result.”

In addition to this, the 40-year old added: “Winning against Arsenal can only help us in terms of our preparation and how the players view themselves and their confidence, so I don’t see it (the Arsenal victory) as a negative, only as a positive.”

On the possibility of doing a ‘Wigan.’

In 2013, Wigan Athletic produced one of the biggest FA Cup upsets of all time, when they beat Manchester City 1-0 in the Final of the old competition.

However, after losing 4-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates, Wigan’s FA Cup ecstasy was extinguished as they were relegated to the Championship.

When asked whether he would prefer to win the FA Cup but go down as a result or maintain Bournemouth’s Premier League status and but go out to Wigan in the next round, Howe stated “I’m not going to choose either option. I want a third option, that we win the FA Cup and we stay in the Premier League.

“You know you can’t answer situations like that, I think staying in the Premier League, if you were to ask everyone connected with this football club that would be the priority, I’m not going to shy away from that.

“But this is a competition that we are playing in, we are competing in and if you are in that position then you want to try and win it, so that’s what we are going to try and do.”

Bournemouth are currently sitting in 13th place, four points from the relegation zone; therefore they may be in a comfortable position to really have a go at the FA Cup this season.

The Cherries will kick off against the Latics at 19:45 at the DW Stadium.