Captain Simon Francis has urged Cherries to “put up a fight” in their bid to become the first side to beat Liverpool in the Premier League this season.

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have stormed to an eight-point league at the top of the table with 14 wins and a draw from their 15 matches so far, the latest of which came courtesy of a 5-2 win over rivals Everton on Wednesday.

Liverpool were pipped to the title by one point by Manchester City last season and have not lost a Premier League match since a 2-1 reverse against City in January, a club-record run of 32 matches.

By contrast, Cherries have lost four games in a row and are just two points clear of the relegation zone.

Looking ahead to today’s contest (3pm), Francis told the Daily Echo: “The motivation is simple – can you be the team that goes and breaks that Premier League run that they’re on?

“If you can’t get yourself up for playing against potential title winners in the Premier League then you’re in the wrong game. The lads will be motivated for that game. The manager will make sure that we are and we’ll do everything we can to get a result.”

He added: “One thing we know about our team is that for us to get results in this league, we’re not about individuals, we are a team.

“When everybody performs to their best within the team, that’s every man, every starting player in that XI and the subs then we can win games against any team.

“But if we fall short like we did on Tuesday (at Crystal Palace), then we’re going to struggle.

“We’ve just got make sure we dust ourselves down and put up a fight.”