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Preview: Bournemouth and Chelsea meet after chastising midweek results

Preview: Bournemouth and Chelsea meet after chastising midweek results

Paylaş

Andoni Iraola’s side will be hoping to stop the rot and end their five Premier League game winless streak when they welcome a consistently inconsistent Chelsea to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

By Alex Roberts

The West Londoners will have a point to prove after they demonstrated exactly why they shouldn’t yet be considered title contenders with a hapless 3-1 defeat to Leeds in the previous round of fixtures.

As for Bournemouth, their impressive start to the season has come to an abrupt end, and they’ve now fallen down to 14th, with only bottom two Burnley and Wolves enduring a worse run of form.

Time to worry about Liam Delap?

Signed from relegated Ipswich for a reported fee of around £30 million, Delap took Chelsea’s cursed number nine shirt, hoping to be the man that ends a long line of disappointing strikers, but instead, he may just be the latest.

That may seem a little harsh. Delap looked good at the Club World Cup, and an early season injury set him back, but there have been too few signs that the Man City academy graduate can make this step up.

Across his 320 Premier League minutes, he has had 11 shots, five of which have been on target, 17 touches in the opposition box, and has generated an xG of just 0.68, scoring zero goals. That’s poor for a striker in a side looking to qualify for the Champions League at a minimum.

Antoine Semenyo has dropped off

The winger’s drop off in form is pretty indicative of what’s happening at Bournemouth at the moment. Not so long ago, there was talk of an unlikely push for European football and Semenyo was arguably the best player in the Premier League.

Now, Semenyo hasn’t provided a single goal contribution in his last six games for Bournemouth, and without the Ghanaian firing, the South Coast side continue to tumble down the table, although a win here could see them head into seventh.

His performance in the 1-0 defeat to Everton last time out was his best in about a month, ending the game having had two shots on target, five touches in the opposition box, and three passes into the final third. He’ll be wanting to build upon that and end his goal drought against one of the big boys.

Team news

Moisés Caicedo was a HUGE miss for Chelsea in the defeat to Leeds. Enzo Maresca’s side have won just 25% of their games without it, and they’ll have to go again here as he’s set to sit out the second of his three-game suspension.

Chelsea were buoyed by the return of talismanic playmaker Cole Palmer, however, who could be set for his first Premier League start since September.

Their injury list is looking a little lighter too. Dário Essugo is back in training, but a return here is unlikely as Chelsea seek to ease him back into things, meaning only Roméo Lavia (thigh) and Levi Colwill (knee) are definitely ruled out.

As for Bournemouth, Marcos Senesi and David Brooks are both available to return from one-match suspensions, but midfielders Lewis Cook and Tyler Adams will replace them after they both picked up five yellow cards.

Ryan Christie (knee) and Ben Gannon Doak (hamstring) are their only players ruled out with injury, and it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing either of them any time soon.

Prediction

Chelsea fans will be worried their side have entered their annual festive hiccup, but that anxiety is looking like it’s well founded, so we’re going with a 2-1 win for Bournemouth.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Preview: Bournemouth and Chelsea meet after chastising midweek results

Andoni Iraola’s side will be hoping to stop the rot and end their five Premier League game winless streak when they welcome a consistently inconsistent Chelsea to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

By Alex Roberts

The West Londoners will have a point to prove after they demonstrated exactly why they shouldn’t yet be considered title contenders with a hapless 3-1 defeat to Leeds in the previous round of fixtures.

As for Bournemouth, their impressive start to the season has come to an abrupt end, and they’ve now fallen down to 14th, with only bottom two Burnley and Wolves enduring a worse run of form.

Time to worry about Liam Delap?

Signed from relegated Ipswich for a reported fee of around £30 million, Delap took Chelsea’s cursed number nine shirt, hoping to be the man that ends a long line of disappointing strikers, but instead, he may just be the latest.

That may seem a little harsh. Delap looked good at the Club World Cup, and an early season injury set him back, but there have been too few signs that the Man City academy graduate can make this step up.

Across his 320 Premier League minutes, he has had 11 shots, five of which have been on target, 17 touches in the opposition box, and has generated an xG of just 0.68, scoring zero goals. That’s poor for a striker in a side looking to qualify for the Champions League at a minimum.

Antoine Semenyo has dropped off

The winger’s drop off in form is pretty indicative of what’s happening at Bournemouth at the moment. Not so long ago, there was talk of an unlikely push for European football and Semenyo was arguably the best player in the Premier League.

Now, Semenyo hasn’t provided a single goal contribution in his last six games for Bournemouth, and without the Ghanaian firing, the South Coast side continue to tumble down the table, although a win here could see them head into seventh.

His performance in the 1-0 defeat to Everton last time out was his best in about a month, ending the game having had two shots on target, five touches in the opposition box, and three passes into the final third. He’ll be wanting to build upon that and end his goal drought against one of the big boys.

Team news

Moisés Caicedo was a HUGE miss for Chelsea in the defeat to Leeds. Enzo Maresca’s side have won just 25% of their games without it, and they’ll have to go again here as he’s set to sit out the second of his three-game suspension.

Chelsea were buoyed by the return of talismanic playmaker Cole Palmer, however, who could be set for his first Premier League start since September.

Their injury list is looking a little lighter too. Dário Essugo is back in training, but a return here is unlikely as Chelsea seek to ease him back into things, meaning only Roméo Lavia (thigh) and Levi Colwill (knee) are definitely ruled out.

As for Bournemouth, Marcos Senesi and David Brooks are both available to return from one-match suspensions, but midfielders Lewis Cook and Tyler Adams will replace them after they both picked up five yellow cards.

Ryan Christie (knee) and Ben Gannon Doak (hamstring) are their only players ruled out with injury, and it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing either of them any time soon.

Prediction

Chelsea fans will be worried their side have entered their annual festive hiccup, but that anxiety is looking like it’s well founded, so we’re going with a 2-1 win for Bournemouth.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the Premier League with FotMob this season — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.