For AFC Bournemouth fans the Premier League dream is becoming a nightmare – three things that need to be addressed

Watching Tottenham Hotspur coast to victory at Dean Court this week was painful, and raised several questions. The main one being - how on earth did things every get to this?

It would easy to overreact to two consecutive 5-1 defeats, especially as they were both matches we were probably expected to lose, but the nature of the performance on Sunday was alarming nonetheless. A team that just months ago was pinging the ball around with confidence looked a shadow of its former self – with uncharacteristic errors throughout.

Short corners being kicked straight to a Spurs player, clearances that went towards our box and not away from it, misplaced passes that should be routine – the list was endless, and it was disheartening to say the least. Many errors could be attributed to Tottenham’s effective pressing game, but some were simply due to a visible lack of confidence.

That’s without mentioning the goalkeeping display from Artur Boruc either, which was possibly scarier than anything you’ll see this Halloween. You could sense palpable fear in the crowd every time the ball went near him, and by the end it felt like central defenders Distin and Cook were clearly avoiding passing it back to him whenever possible.

So what can be done to address this issue in the short term? With the January transfer window a mere speck in the horizon we need to scrape together as many points as we can until we can bring in reinforcements – and here’s three ways we might be able to do just that.

1) Play 5 across midfield

Sacrificing our attacking principles for a more defensive formation might seem unwise – especially considering the personnel we have - but we played 4-4-1-1 last season, and racked up 97 league goals in the process.

So having that one player behind the striker back up the midfield more often would be a more than logical move, especially away from home. Seeing how much Andrew Surman and Ryan Gosling were constantly overran on Sunday we perhaps need to become a more counter attacking side – a style of play that Glenn Murray thrived on at Crystal Palace.

2) Cut out the sloppy errors

Our defence is soft enough without gifting the opposition goals – so Eddie Howe possibly needs to look to get back to basics in training if need be. We have looked dangerous going forward in spells during almost every game this season – even in the two recent defeats – so it’s clear it’s at the back where the most work needs to be done. Another heavy defeat and the damage could be irreparable.

3) Don’t make wholesale changes to the team

It would seem dropping Artur Boruc after Sunday’s horror show would seem to be a foregone conclusion, especially as Howe has rarely given goalkeepers too much room for error in the past.

But dropping Boruc would surely decimate any remaining confidence he has, and despite Adam Federici likely being chosen to play against Liverpool in the cup I wouldn’t be surprised if the Polish international gets another chance between the sticks on Sunday. What better place to atone for his sins than put in a stormer against his former club Southampton after all?