Top half could be the cherry on cake for Bournemouth

Bournemouth won’t rest on their laurels despite virtually ensuring Premier League survival with Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Swansea, insists match-winner Steve Cook.

Cook’s late header lifted the Cherries 13 points clear of the relegation zone and their tally of 38 points should be enough to keep them up, but the defender wants Bournemouth to finish their maiden top-flight season in the top half.

“We’d like to think we are safe. We want to get to 40 points as soon as possible but I think we are more or less there,” the defender said.

“We want to finish as high up the league as possible.

“That’s now our target, to get into the top half. We are two points off the top half so that will be our aim, and I am sure we can do it.”

Goals from Max Gradel and Josh King twice put Bournemouth ahead, only for Modou Barrow and Gylfi Sigurdsson to peg them back.

But Swansea could not recover a third time after defender Cook nodded home Matt Ritchie’s cross with 12 minutes remaining.

The Swans were looking to take another step towards securing their own survival, but with eight points between them and the drop zone they cannot relax just yet.

Head coach Francesco Guidolin will be back at the helm against Aston Villa next weekend after missing the last three matches due to a lung infection. Striker Marvin Emnes is determined to get the points on the board as quickly as possible.

“We must now focus on next week and prepare well for Aston Villa,” he said.

“We need the three points to start climbing the table, and we want to secure victory in front of our fans. We know the situation is in our hands, and I believe if we keep playing like we have been playing in recent weeks, we won’t have any problems.”

Meanwhile, Southampton manager hopes Graziano Pelle can fire Southampton into Europe next season after the striker brought his four-month barren spell to a close with a match-winning brace at Stoke.

“If we like to keep fighting for European football then we need the front players in a good shape and scoring goals,” Koeman said. “That’s a big impact for the team.

“I mentioned before he was struggling a little bit in scoring goals. It was a great response from Graziano today.”

And Koeman vowed Saints will appeal Sadio Mane’s harsh red card following a clash of heads with Erik Pieters.

“The red card is a big mistake of the referee or maybe of the fourth referee or maybe of the linesman,” the Dutchman added.

“Sadio is trying to put his head to the ball; Pieters is doing the same. Even Pieters told me there was nothing. We will appeal against that red card.”