BOURNEMOUTH VS CRYSTAL PALACE PREVIEW & PREDICTION
AFC Bournemouth will be visited by Crystal Palace this weekend. Especially visitors from London can use the points at the moment very good in the Premier League, but you can not win an away match against Bournemouth this season.
AFC Bournemouth:
For AFC Bournemouth the season is almost as good as over. Although the Cherries have not caught forty points this season, they can not possibly still relegate. At Bournemouth they are no longer able to qualify for European football and so it is a matter of playing the season quietly for The Cherries. Bournemouth coach Eddie Howe hopes that his team will be able to give six matches of gas in the Premier League, because a place in the left row is still at stake for The Cherries.
With only two losses in the last nine games Bournemouth is in an excellent form. Last week, Bournemouth caught a point on a visit to Watford, although it had not been a lot of trouble or The Cherries had returned home scoreless. Bournemouth was at a disadvantage against Watford and Joshua King made the equalizer from eleven meters on behalf of The Cherries. Not much later, however, Watford made it 2-1 and it was routine Jermain Defoe who helped Bournemouth in the final stages of the game.
When Crystal Palace comes to visit Bournemouth there must be a lot of possibilities for The Cherries. Against Watford, Bournemouth could wait and hope for goals from counters, but against Palace Bournemouth will in all probability have to make the game. The Cherries have already scored seventeen points this season after the Howe squad came in behind, and no Premier League team does better than Bournemouth in that respect. Howe can still not have Junior Stanislas, Adam Smith, this weekend and Tyrone Mings will not be there when Palace visits the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Crystal Palace:
At Crystal Palace they have a lot more worries than they have at Bournemouth. Roy Hodgson and his team are still over the top in the Premier League, but the gap on pursuer Southampton is only one point and The Saints have played a game less than Crystal Palace. That the Palace is currently so low in the English league, The Eagles mainly due to the initial phase under Frank de Boer and the results of the last weeks. Under De Boer Palace did not score points and the last few weeks under Hodgson it is also very stiff at The Eagles.
That it is very stiff at Crystal Palace is not really related to Hodgson, but more to the Crystal Palace program. In the last five Premier League matches that Crystal Palace played, it hit Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. All four of those games were lost and The Eagles managed to score three points when they visited Huddersfield Town: 0-2. Last weekend, Crystal Palace lost 1-2 to Liverpool, but Hodgson’s men were entirely to blame for that. Christian Benteke in particular got a number of chances to give Crystal Palace a 1-1 draw in the lead against Liverpool, but the Belgian striker clearly did not have a sharp eye against his former employer.
Mohamed Salah made the decisive goal against Crystal Palace in the 84th minute, and Palace was left with points in the final minutes of a game. That is not an unknown phenomenon for The Eagles, however, as Crystal Palace is the first club in the Premier League to lose three home matches in a row by goals against the final ten minutes. Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United recently also managed to score at Selhurst Park in the final stages, so it is important for the Hodgson players to stay sharp in the final minutes of a game.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1.60
