Bournemouth vs Fulham

Bournemouth will be looking to win back-to-back Premier League matches at the Vitality Stadium for the first time since February 2020 when they meet mid-table Fulham this weekend.

Bournemouth stunned the odds in their most recent Premier League game on home soil, humbling Liverpool 1-0, but they went on to suffer an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa on the stroke of March’s international break. Stuck in the red zone, one point adrift of safety, the ‘Cherries’ will be looking to defy their underwhelming four-game league form (W1, L3) and hold Fulham winless for the fourth time in a row (D3). Anything other than that may lead to Gary O’Neil’s dismissal after the under-pressure manager has overseen the worst run of form in the Premier League upon the return of club football on Boxing Day. With the fewest points (8) and the fewest goals (7) since the Premier League return after the 2022 World Cup, the hosts look doomed ahead of the kick-off.

In the meantime, visiting Fulham cannot call upon the services of headline striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, whose strike decided their only previous Premier League visit to Bournemouth in 2019. The Serbian striker picked up a straight red card during his side’s morale-crushing 3-1 FA Cup loss to Manchester United, alongside Willian and manager Marco Silva. Without Silva in the dugout, Fulham’s prospects of arresting a two-game losing streak on the road look bleak, while their recent defensive implosion offers another reason for concern. Not only have the ‘Cottagers’ lost their last two Premier League outings, but they conceded six times in that stretch after letting in just five goals in their ten league matches beforehand. Staring down the barrel of three top-flight defeats in a row for the first time this season, Fulham can draw confidence from the fact that just one of their ten Premier League losses this season came against sides from the bottom half of the table.