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The opening Premier League fixture of the weekend takes place at the Vitality as Bournemouth host upwardly-mobile Liverpool in Dorset. The match kicks off at 12:30 and is live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Bournemouth
Southampton’s victory over Leicester last weekend sent Bournemouth back to the bottom of the Premier League table. The Cherries are currently embarking upon an incredibly tough run of fixtures, although they can emerge from last weekend’s 3-2 defeat against Arsenal with plenty of credit.
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Although goals have been fairly hard to come by for the south coast club, they have now managed to find the back of the net in each of their last four matches and in five of their last six. Last weekend, they almost made history by scoring the second quickest goal in the history of the Premier League.
Defending continues to be an issue for the Cherries and there was always an inevitability about a Gunners comeback, even at 2-0. They’ve conceded 51 times this season and have conceded an average of 2.04 goals per game.
Nevertheless, the hosts are much stronger at home and they’re unbeaten in three of their last five at this venue. Remarkably, they’ve also managed to keep four clean sheets this season in front of their own fans.
Bournemouth will be seeking revenge for the 9-0 hammering dished out by this opponent earlier in the campaign. That damaging defeat put a dent in their goal difference and spelled the end for manager Scott Parker (who has subsequently been sacked by Club Brugge).
Liverpool
Liverpool produced arguably the performance of the season as they thumped rivals Manchester United 7-0 on Sunday afternoon. The Reds were relentless and punished several defensive lapses by Erik Ten Haag’s side.
That victory continued Liverpool’s strong record at Anfield this season where they have suffered just a single defeat so far. However, it’s been a different story on the road where they have struggled throughout the campaign. Nevertheless, they’ve now kept consecutive clean sheets on the road and will be expecting to make it three unbeaten at the Vitality.
The Merseyside outfit are suddenly brimming with confidence once more and with crucial players having returned from injury in recent weeks, they are now much tougher to beat.
Mo Salah looks to be returning to his best whereas Roberto Firmino, in his final season at Anfield, also found the back of the net at the weekend. However, Reds’ fans will be delighted by the progress of recent signings Darwin Nunez and Cody Gapko, who are looking increasingly at home in the English top flight.
Head to Head
As previously mentioned, Liverpool dished out a damaging 9-0 defeat on Bournemouth when they met earlier in the campaign and the Cherries will be hoping to avoid a similar fate on Saturday lunchtime.
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool have dominated this fixture in recent years with the Reds having won 12 of the last 14 meetings between these teams.
They’ve also won six of the last seven without conceding and given their recent run of clean sheets, you wouldn’t back against a similar outcome this weekend.
Key Betting Stats
- Each of the last nine meetings between these sides have featured at least three goals
- Only Arsenal and Man City have scored more goals than Liverpool so far this season
- Despite their defensive issues, Bournemouth have only conceded an average of 1.33 goals per game at the Vitality
- Liverpool have averaged almost 15 shots per game on the road, yet they have a conversion rate of just 7%.
- 21% of the goals that Liverpool have conceded this season have come in the opening 15 minutes. Bournemouth have scored 17 of their seasonal tally in that same period.
- Darwin Nunez is averaging 3.9 shots per match in the PL. 0.8 more than any other Liverpool player.
- Phillip Billing’s strike against Arsenal makes him the club’s top goal-scorer with five. Unfortunately, only one of those strikes has come at home.
Match Prediction
Liverpool will be expected to win this and given the ease of their victory last weekend, they should be able to take all three points back to Merseyside. Nevertheless, the hosts are likely to make it tough and the visitors may have to be patient.
The Reds have been defensively superb recently and they should be able to maintain their impressive performance levels on Saturday lunchtime.
Winning Combo
Liverpool to Win, Both Teams to Score? No and Over 1.5 Goals
Odds – 11/5 with Betfair’s Bet Builder
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