AFC Bournemouth head to Crystal Palace in league: Preview
THE Cherries will be hoping to build on Monday night’s victory over Fulham as they head to Selhurst Park this Easter weekend to face Crystal Palace.
The three points on Monday ended a run of six games without a win for Andoni Iraola’s side and moved them back up to eighth to keep their European hopes alive.
Palace, meanwhile, had been on a good run of form until back-to-back heavy defeats at the hands of Manchester City and Newcastle.
The Daily Echo previews Saturday’s game in the capital.
Team News
Iraola was boosted last week by the return of Marcus Tavernier to the match day squad, and he will be hopeful of having Luis Sinisterra and Justin Kluivert available for Saturday’s game.
The pair had a chance of being involved on Monday but weren’t, so the boss will be hoping they will be ready to go against Palace.
Oliver Glasner has only two players ruled out, with Chadi Riad and Chieck Doucoure out for the season with knee injuries.
Head-to-Head
The Cherries have the better historic record against the Eagles, winning 32 of the 80 games between the two sides to Palace’s 28.
Across the past five meetings, both sides have won two, with the most recent game seeing the two play out a goalless draw.
They met on Boxing Day at the Vitality Stadium and played out the only game without score in the season so far for the Cherries.
Palace had a goal disallowed for offside, while both sides missed chances to take all of the points and the spoils were shared.
Last Time Out
The Cherries earned a much-needed three points as they beat Fulham on Monday night, emerging as 1-0 winners after Antoine Semenyo scored inside the opening minute.
Bournemouth defended resolutely and held Fulham off to keep the clean sheet and end a poor run of form that had seen them last win in the league in mid-February.
This win equalled the Cherries’ best ever points haul in the Premier League of 48 points.
But in their last two games, away at Manchester City and Newcastle, they were comfortably beaten.
The Eagles led 2-0 at City before throwing that lead away to be level at 2-2 at halftime. City then went on to score three in the second half with no Palace response to win 5-2.
Then on Wednesday night, the Magpies led early on before Eberechi Eze missed a penalty at 1-0 and the north east side scored a further three before the break to lead 4-0.
An Alexander Isak goal then added to the Palace woes and condemned them to a 5-0 defeat.
AFC Bournemouth travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday, April 19, kick off at 3pm.
