BOSS Eddie Howe defended Jason Tindall’s touchline behaviour – and believes pressurising officials into decisions is “a thing of the past”.

The Cherries manager was speaking after assistant Tindall was accused of attempting to influence referee Stuart Attwell by West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini.

Hammers manager Pellegrini had words with Howe and Tindall following the final whistle of last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Vitality Stadium.

Following the contest, the Chilean coach said: “I talk about the assistant coach of him (Tindall), the complete game with the referee trying to pressurise in every decision.

"I think Eddie has done very good work here - his assistant doesn't need to do those kind of things because I don't think it's fair for the referee."

Howe and Tindall are regularly stood up as a duo in the technical area during Cherries’ fixtures.

And the Cherries boss insisted his stalwart number two had done nothing wrong.

Asked for his opinion on Pellegrini’s comments, Howe told the Daily Echo: “It’s a tough one for Jason to do from the sideline, without speaking to the referee. I don’t know how you achieve that.

“With VAR now, I think the days of pressurising referees - whether it be the fourth official, linesman, referee - into decisions, is a thing of the past.

“Jason is quite active on the touchline. We try to work as a team.

“I want his input, so we will regularly talk and discuss things. I wouldn’t want to change how we do that and we’ve always done the same thing.

“Jason is fair. One thing I can say, I would not tolerate him or anyone else in my members of staff acting in an unfair manner.

“Jason always, in my opinion, acts within the laws of the game and I would encourage that.”

Howe and Tindall are set to resume touchline duties when Cherries make the trip to Arsenal on Sunday (2pm).

Yet to keep a clean sheet in the division this campaign, the visitors are set to come up against red-hot frontman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The Gabon international has notched seven goals from as many games in the top-flight this season.

Quizzed on thwarting the former Dortmund forward, Howe replied: “I think you have to stop the team in general and then hopefully that stops the individuals hurting you.

“But you have to respect every opponent’s qualities and our players will certainly be aware of his.

“I don’t think you can necessarily have one plan for one player. You need to be aware of certain things and then try to deliver a better defensive performance.

“That’s certainly a key aim for us going into this game on the back of what has been a frustrating start for us defensively.

“We believe we are better than our defensive record shows, we’ve been working hard on it. We’ve obviously got some work to do to get to be the resilient team we want to be.”