AFC Bournemouth are the ninth best team in England. Let that sink in for a moment. AFC Bournemouth. Ninth best team in the league.

To finish so high in the top flight is a remarkable achievement. The draw at Leicester City on Sunday cemented the club’s highest ever finish in the English football pyramid. We deserve it too, playing a brave attacking style of football that has seen us score a hatful of goals in the process.

We certainly didn’t make it easy for ourselves to finish ninth though at the weekend – here are my five main talking points from the game at the King Power Stadium.

Electric start

Much like many games away from home this season we started in fearsome fashion at the King Power Stadium at the weekend, pressing the Foxes high up the pitch and bossing possession.

Scoring early – after just 58 seconds – was pleasant, but we had a few opportunities to extend our lead before the break which we really should have taken. Namely Dan Gosling’s shot that Kasper Schmeichel managed to palm around the post. Especially because…

Lack of steel

Too many times this season we’ve faded after bright starts when playing away from Dean Court. This Sunday was no exception.

Despite being in almost complete control for the first 30 minutes of the match, the momentum then notably shifted from that point on. The second half was almost attack versus defence. We looked tired, and Leicester were clearly trying their best to finish their season on a high.

Despite numerous chances they simply couldn’t put us away, but most other weeks we would have lost that game. The fact that many of the Foxes players collapsed to the turf at the end showed how they had given everything to snag a last-day win. Our ability to cling on for dear life should be applauded however.

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Some squad players step up….

It’s worth noting that we were playing a significantly patched up side this weekend though. Josh King, Harry Arter, Artur Boruc, and Lewis Cook were all out. The fact we managed to nab a point shows how we have greater strength in depth than many may think.

Dan Gosling in particular was excellent, harrying throughout and was one of the few players who was still running at the end – where it looked like we were almost certainly going to concede a second.

Junior Stanislas blew hot and cold, as did Lys Mousset – but both had some good moments going forward. Andrew Surman also looked a composed figure in midfield despite only just returning from an injury he picked up at Southampton back in early April.

And some don’t

Then you look at the performance of Jordon Ibe and realise we have a long way to go with some aspects of our squad. The fact a player who cost us £15 million in the summer can show so little promise over 20 plus performances is a concern. Both for Ibe himself and our transfer policy.

Ibe came on for the last 30 minutes, but failed to impress with every touch he made. He often waited too long to make a pass, or ran into danger when a more sensible option was available.

His poor display was capped a few minutes from full time when he was played in one on one against Schmeichel…but then took a touch so heavy that a collective sigh could be heard from the away end as the ball rolled into the grateful hands of the Leicester keeper.

What’s next?

But I don’t want to end this post on a negative note. We just finished ninth after all. Ninth!

Eddie Howe has us on a constant upwards trajectory season on season, so I’m not sure how he’ll manage to top ninth. I’ll be very interested to see if he can, or whether it’s even possible with the infrastructure we currently have in place.

But instead of worrying about that right now I’ll be looking at the table for the next few hours if you don’t mind. It makes for rather peasant reading…