Bournemouth vs Chelsea

Vitality Stadium is the venue as Bournemouth and Chelsea go head-to-head in a battle between the two out-of-sorts Premier League sides.

New Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola couldn’t have hoped for a worse start to his life in the Premier League, with the ‘Cherries’ going winless in all four league games under his tutelage (D2, L2). Brentford’s stoppage-time equalizer denied the Spaniard his first victory in England’s top flight, holding his side to a dramatic 2-2 draw last time out. The impending return to the Vitality Stadium won’t help Bournemouth’s bid to get into the win column much, considering they’re winless in their last four Premier League home outings (D1, L3), netting a meager average of 0.5 goals per game in the process. They can at least draw some confidence from their decent three-game home form against Chelsea in the top flight (W1, D1, L1), though this corresponding fixture last May yielded a disastrous 3-1 defeat.

On the other hand, visiting Chelsea slumped to an embarrassing 1-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest on the stroke of the international break, casting doubt on Mauricio Pochettino’s effort to galvanize his downtrodden side following last season’s dismal 12th-place finish. Barring a 3-0 home win over newcomers Luton Town on matchday three, the ‘Blues’ have gone unbeaten in their remaining three league matches this term (D1, L2) and are already lagging well behind the coveted top-four race. After losing their last three Premier League games on the road, Chelsea could be staring down the barrel of a four-game winless away run in the competition for the first time since 2000.