AFC Bournemouth: This season's new underdogs?

AFC Bournemouth v Leicester City - Premier League
Ryan Fraser celebrates alongside Adam Smith during Bournemouth's comfortable home win over Leicester

The air at the Vitality Stadium is increasingly positive this evening, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise after Bournemouth recorded their third Premier League win of the season in emphatic style this afternoon.

Their best ever start to a top-flight campaign, Eddie Howe's men outclassed Leicester at home in a fixture that many pundits expected to go the way of the visitors.

Another morale-boosting victory

This season being only their fourth in England's top tier, they have made outstanding progress already - with only a few summer acquisitions adding to the base of their first-team squad.

Ryan Fraser, whose form has been punctuated by regular spurts of inconsistency in recent seasons, continued his impressive start to the new campaign with a well-taken brace and assist to boot.

Joshua King, who too has endured mixed spells in the league, added another assist as Bournemouth ran out 4-2 winners against Claude Puel's Foxes.

Cherries - this season's Burnley?

Today's victory against Leicester could prove to be the defining moment where they are the league's new underdogs, should they maintain their impressive run of form.

Bournemouth debuted during the 2015/16 campaign, which saw Leicester surprise everyone by claiming the Premier League title in a dream run. Although it's unlikely and still early days, the south Coast outfit will be hoping to emulate Leicester's success with a European charge, provided they are consistent throughout the campaign.

Easier said than done, they take on Burnley in their next fixture away at Turf Moor. Sean Dyche has established both continuity and confidence in his players, having earned hard-fought victories and rewarding results against heavily-fancied sides for a few seasons now.

Burnley FC v Manchester United - Premier League
Burnley worked hard despite their loss to United last weekend and will be looking to halt Bournemouth's run

The Cherries' backline is their only real concern, it'll be interesting to see whether or not Howe looks to experiment with some new strategies ahead of next weekend. First-choice fullback Charlie Daniels (knee) is currently still sidelined, meaning summer signing Diego Rico earned his second successive league start after a £12m move from La Liga side Leganes.

Jefferson Lerma, a £25m signing from fellow La Liga side Levante, also did the same after a solid display despite their 2-0 defeat by Chelsea last weekend.

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Edited by Mosope Ominiyi