Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, two teams with Europe on their minds, meet at Vitality Stadium on Sunday.
The Andoni Iraola farewell party continues with the Cherries seeking to go unbeaten for a 15th consecutive Premier League match, the longest current such run in the top flight.
They are firmly on course for a European debut next season. Only two teams have had a 14-plus game unbeaten run within a season and finished outside the top six: that was Wimbledon in 1996-97 and Chelsea – who have been linked with a move for Iraola – in 2015-16.
If Bournemouth fans have a complaint, it could be the number of draws – seven in their past 10 league games – with the past five matches at Vitality Stadium ending in a stalemate.
But they will be expecting to keep up their unbeaten run against Palace, who might have one eye on their Conference League semi-final, and who have not beaten Bournemouth in any of their past five Premier League meetings (L2, D3).
Like Bournemouth head coach Iraola, Palace boss Oliver Glasner will also be leaving at the end of the season.
While Iraola’s parting gift is set to be getting the Cherries into Europe for the first time, Glasner has moved Palace a step further on and is hoping to bring home major continental silverware for the first time.
The visit to the south coast is sandwiched between the two Conference League semi-final games against Shakhtar Donetsk, with Palace in great shape to progress after winning the away leg 3-1 on Thursday.
It was also a welcome win away from home, after back-to-back defeats on the road, including at Liverpool last weekend, where Palace had more shots and more shots on targets that their hosts but came home without any points in a 3-1 defeat.
In fact, the Eagles have lost seven of their past 13 Premier League away games, as many defeats on the road as in their first 28 matches under Oliver Glasner.
They have mainly defended well at Bournemouth in recent times, keeping a clean sheet in five of their eight Premier League games there.
Even so, the overall head-to-head record has tipped in the Cherries’ favour, with Palace failing to win any of their past five matches against them.