Chelsea vs Bournemouth

BPL 2018-19 – Chelsea vs Bournemouth Match Preview

This shapes up to be a fantastic game. Sarri’s Chelsea take on in form Bournemouth. Both sides have made a fantastic start to the season, 9 pts out of 9 for Chelsea, 7 out of 9 for Bournemouth. Both teams like to play attacking brand of football and Bournemouth in recent years have given Chelsea some nightmarish games *cough cough the 0-3 win at Stamford Bridge in the recent meeting. Chelsea are heavy favourites but don’t expect Bournemouth to go away lightly!

Chelsea

It sure looks like Sarri have revitalised the way Chelsea play and they are getting great results from it to start the season! Chelsea have kicked off the season with 3 wins out of 3 in the Premier League beating Huddersfield, Arsenal and Newcastle. They ended some long droughts by winning against Arsenal and finally being able to win at St James Park against Newcastle. Last week we saw one of the strangest Premier League games between Newcastle and Chelsea. Chelsea were literally all over Newcastle, their midfielder Jorginho managed to complete more passes than Newcastle as a whole team and Chelsea have also had 81% possession. However, even with all of those stats it took until the 87th minute for Chelsea to win thanks to Marcos Alonso’s shot being deflected in. Chelsea actually took the lead in the 76th minute, but out of nowhere with David Luiz switching off, Joselu equalised but Chelsea essentially came out on top. Two late winners this season already by Chelsea has shown us that this team has regained their winning mentality. The team as a whole looks great, defensively we still see sleepiness, especially by Luiz who should really get dropped by now after costing Chelsea another clean sheet last week. Otherwise, the team looks great, the new signings are doing well and the star man Hazard is in great form.

Now, Chelsea will be coming up against Bournemouth. We can for sure expect this game to be a bit more end to end that last week against Newcastle as Bournemouth like to attack. Expect more open spaces for players like Hazard, Pedro, Jorginho, Kovacic to operate in since the opposition isn’t the type to field 10 players in their own half. Chelsea have had struggles with Bournemouth in some of the meetings at Stamford Bridge so they must be fully aware that this won’t be an easy fixture, especially how their opponent look early in the season.

Team news wise, there’s nothing to report for Chelsea, everybody is healthy and we should expect the same team as last week to be fielded against Bournemouth.

Bournemouth

Fantastic start to the season so far by Bournemouth. In recent years we’d see them start slow and then get it right, however it’s been other way round this time. Eddie Howe’s men are enjoying themselves in the top 6 right now with 2W 1D 0L and a cup win during the mid week. Last week, Bournemouth showed enormous character to come back from 0-2 down against Everton playing 10 against 10 to draw 2-2. It was a fantastic result for the Cherries in a game that was up and down. Bournemouth have been one of the best comeback teams last season with 24 points from losing situations and they’ve already picked up 4 this season (turnaround win at west ham and a comeback draw vs Everton). Callum Wilson is a player to watch for this game from Bournemouth, he’s had a great start to the season with 2 goals and 1 assist. Bournemouth as a whole going forward have been dangerous with 6 goals in 3 games and they are more than likely going to have a go at Chelsea.

Looking at team news for Bournemouth, there isn’t too many news. Stanislas and Pugh are still out with injuries. Other than that, everyone else are fit and ready to go. We could see the new signing Jefferson Lerma break into the squad after getting his first action midweek. Defoe still can’t get into the team because of the in form Callum Wilson and Josh King. We can expect a similar line-up to the one Bournemouth fielded last week against Everton. We can expect Bournemouth to play counter attacking brand of football and they must absolutely try to exploit the David Luiz weakness in the Chelsea defence assuming he starts. The reason Bournemouth won at Stamford Bridge last week 0-3 was because they target the suspect Gary Cahill, so why not use that same tactic against David Luiz who really likes to switch off at key moments.

What to Expect

We can expect goals. This fixture has given us 5 over 2.5 goal games and only two unders. In 7 meetings there have been 20 goals scored when these two sides meet which is nearly three per game so over 2.5 goals is a decent bet. Also, both teams to score is another bet we’d like to offer. Chelsea have been suspect defensively, especially with Luiz who likes to switch off at key moments, exhibit A last week at Newcastle. Plus Bournemouth have actually scored in 3 of the 4 meetings at Stamford Bridge including the cup game since 2015 so they know what it’s like to score at Chelsea’s stadium. Chelsea themselves have immense attacking talent and should be able to score as they’ve been in good goal scoring form (3, 3 and 2). We do believe that Bournemouth will make it a testy match for Chelsea, we should expect end to end football from time to time and of course goals as mentioned. Our prediction is a 2-1 Chelsea win. BTTS, over 2.5 goals and a +1.5 Bournemouth AH are the top picks. Should be an entertaining game this.

Match Odds (TonyBet)

Chelsea Win – 1.30

Draw – 6.10

Bournemouth Win – 10.50

KICK OFF – 1st September 2018 – 3pm UK Time