Bournemouth vs. Man City
Venue: Dean Court
Kick off: 2PM
For all the inevitable teeth-gnashing around VAR last weekend, the denial of Manchester City’s late potential winner against Tottenham Hotspur injected an extra element of urgency into their meeting with Bournemouth this afternoon.
While the Cherries picked up three points by catching Aston Villa cold and scoring twice in the early stages to win 2-1 at Villa Park, perfectionist City chief Pep Guardiola saw his side contentiously cede their first two points of the probable title race.
That leaves these sides unbeaten and level on points in the early table ahead of a meeting that is far from a foregone conclusion given the hosts’ unpredictable form against the Premier League’s top sides at the Vitality Stadium.
Temperamental tiffs notwithstanding, they remain on a superb away run that has yielded nothing but wins in the league since a surprise setback at Newcastle in January that helped to make their memorable title race with Liverpool so exciting.
Trying to identify flaws in that record on the road is a distinct case of clutching at straws, but the nearest they came to dropping points – which, ultimately, would have cost them the title – was a 1-0 win at Bournemouth at the start of March.
Ominously for their opponents, Guardiola has had the rare luxury of an eight-day gap between matches in which to indulge his need to fine-tune tactics on the training pitch.
Kevin De Bruyne, sorely missed in midfield for City during his injury problems last season, has provided three assists in their opening two matches and looked a constant threat against Spurs.
Captain David Silva will make his 400th appearance for City should he play against Bournemouth, leading Guardiola to heap praise upon the Spaniard this week.
On the other hand, Eddie Howe’s side will hope that win at Villa represents a corner turned in terms of results this calendar year, having won only three times in all competitions beforehand.
Their frustrating opening day draw with Sheffield United, another newly promoted team, may have given Bournemouth an extra incentive to race out of the blocks last week, knowing that City awaited them this afternoon.
Howe has justifiably picked out Raheem Sterling, whose four strikes so far mean he has averaged a goal every 45 minutes, as the dangerman.
The England striker has scored eight times in his last seven encounters with Bournemouth, including a 90th-minute winner at the Vitality Stadium in August 2017.
Bournemouth have recorded two wins against the big six on a Sunday, beating Liverpool and Arsenal.
History suggests they will need to score at least twice if they are to repeat those achievements. In 21 previous Premier League games on a Sunday, they have conceded 56 goals.
Aside from an injury time win against a Tottenham Hotspur side who had been down to 10 men for more than 40 minutes last April, Bournemouth’s current home run is poor.
That victory remains their only home win in seven, stretching back to an impressive 4-0 win over Chelsea at the end of January.
Bournemouth possible XI: Ramsdale, Smith, Steve Cook, Ake, Daniels, Surman, Lerma, Harry Wilson, King, Fraser, Callum Wilson.
Man City possible XI: Ederson, Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko, De Bruyne, Rodri, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Aguero, Sterling.