Eddie Howe urges Bournemouth to produce strong finish to Premier League season

Eddie Howe says Bournemouth remain motivated to improve on their Premier League points tally from last season but admits he is frustrated by their recent run.

Last Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Liverpool was preceded by draws against Crystal Palace and Watford, leaving the Cherries on 38 points, still two points short of the 40-point mark and eight short of the 46 they achieved last season

Speaking ahead of Wednesday's home game against Manchester United, Howe said: "I would love to finally end the position we're in because we've been creeping there.

"We've been hard to beat, we've got a lot of draws within the recent sequences.

"Our form since Christmas has been really good but there's a frustration that we haven't really kicked on and found the fluency in the performances we've created.

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"We've got four games to do that, starting against Manchester United."

"We are in exactly the same position as were this time last year, we finished really strongly last season so the challenge is there for us to do that again.

"It is a motivation, it is something that we want to do, we've improved our league every year as we've gone on.

"Our target at the start of the season was to do that again so these are important games for us."

Following Manchester United's visit to the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth face a south coast derby at struggling Southampton on April 28.

That is followed by a home game against Swansea a week later before the season finale at Burnley on May 13.

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