AFC Bournemouth defender Adam Smith has urged his teammates to replicate their performances against Arsenal and Liverpool when they face Aston Villa this weekend. Villa host the Cherries on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off and will be widely expected to take all three points. But the Dorset outfit have proven to be stubborn opponents in recent weeks, pushing the Gunners the distance and beating Liverpool at home in the past fortnight. They may be third from bottom, but they will hold no fear against Unai Emery’s side. Smith admits they feel less pressure against the bigger clubs in the Premier League, but admits they need to be more consistent to get a result against the Villans.
Adam Smith said: “To be honest, no one expects you to get anything from the game (against Liverpool). So you do have less pressure for sure. It’s the ones that you think you’ve got a good chance against them and the teams in and around you that they’re the ones that has more pressure, the supporters expect you to get a result. They’re the games you feel more pressure as a player for sure. Going to the Emirates, you don’t really feel as much pressure. Playing well against Arsenal, I know it was it was really bad ending, but to give the best team in the league problems at their home ground, you know that there was positives to take from that. So we did take that into Liverpool. Hopefully now after this we can we can try and kick on, but you know you’ve got keep your feet on the ground and perform against [Aston] Villa on Saturday and obviously try and get the three points again. We had a meeting with the gaffer [after the defeat to Arsenal] and he basically showed us the positives in that game and not to look at the negatives and how we’re feeling at the moment but if we’ve just gone to the Emirates, you know, a lot of teams around us that have gone there have lost three, four our five-nil. And we’ve gone there and we really should have got a draw at least. It is so hard just to find that consistency, if we perform like that every week [against Arsenal and Liverpool], we would win most games. It’s having the right mentality and, and having the belief, so it’s a lot to do with confidence.”
