Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Bournemouth – Sat, Oct 26th 2024, 15:00
Aston Villa will look for their third consecutive victory this afternoon, with AFC Bournemouth the visitors to Villa Park (ko 3pm).
Unai Emery’s side are unbeaten in 10 in all competitions, sitting fourth in the Premier League table heading into the clash.
Villa will be hoping to continue the momentum generated from another memorable European night in midweek, where we secured a third Champions League win of the league phase at home to Bologna.
Villa are are unbeaten in their last three games against Andoni Iraola’s outfit, with Emery having won on both of the previous occasions he has faced the Cherries at Villa Park.
Iraola’s men will enter the clash with momentum of their own following an impressive 2-0 victory at home to Arsenal last Saturday.
Today’s visitors currently sit 11th in the table ahead of the affair, having started the Premier League season three games unbeaten.
Stats
Villa’s Ollie Watkins has been involved in 15 Premier League goals in his last nine appearances against teams whose name starts with B (8 goals, 7 assists) and has one goal and four assists in his last three games against Bournemouth.
No team has scored more goals from the 70th minute onwards of games in the Premier League this season than Bournemouth (six). The average minute of their goals has been the 63rd minute, the latest average by a team in a single Premier League campaign.
Youri Tielemans has created 17 chances in the Premier League this season, the most of any Villa player. He is creating 2.1 chances per 90 minutes on average in 2024-25, his best ratio in a single Premier League campaign.
Only Manchester City (157) and Tottenham (145) have had more shots in the Premier League this season than Bournemouth (130). Their current average of 16.3 shots per game is their highest ratio in a single top-flight campaign.
The two sides to benefit from the most goals and assists from substitutes in the Premier League this season are Villa (4 goals, 2 assists) and Bournemouth (3 goals, 3 assists). Only two subs have both scored and assisted in a game this season and both are Cherries players – Luis Sinisterra vs Everton and Justin Kluivert vs Arsenal last time out.
Only Manchester City (13) have won more points from losing positions in the Premier League this season than Villa (10), who have won three games despite conceding first so far this campaign.
Bournemouth have lost six of their last nine away Premier League matches (W2 D1), losing their last two without scoring since their late 3-2 comeback victory against Everton at the end of August.
Villa have picked up 17 points in eight Premier League games this season (W5 D2 L1), just the third time they’ve had that many points at this stage, also doing so in 1995-96 (17, finished 4th) and 1998-99 (20, finished 6th).
Bournemouth have won 50% of their eight Premier League games against Villa (W4 D1 L3) – of those they’ve faced as many times, against no side do they have a higher win rate in the competition.
Having lost their first two Premier League home games against Bournemouth in 2016 and 2019, Aston Villa have won the last two by an aggregate score of 6-1.
The Last Meeting
Villa’s last meeting with Bournemouth was an entertaining affair at Villa Park towards the end of last season, in which Emery’s side came from behind to secure a 3-1 victory.
Dominic Solanke opened the scoring from the penalty spot for the visitors, but the Lions roared back on the stroke of half-time through Morgan Rogers.
Second-half strikes from Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey were enough to seal a 20th Premier League win of the season for Emery’s men, a feat achieved for the first time since 1992/93.
The win capped off a perfect week for Villa, who triumphed 2-0 away at Arsenal a week prior, before securing their place in the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals in midweek with a penalty shoot-out victory over LOSC Lille.
Team News
Jaden Philogene will be the only absentee for Emery’s men as he serves a one-match suspension following his dismissal at Fulham last weekend.
Villa are otherwise fully fit ahead of the visit of the Cherries. Boubacar Kamara will be looking for his first Premier League minutes of the season after returning from injury against Bologna on Tuesday night, a game in which Tyrone Mings was named in a senior matchday squad for the first time in over a year.
Bournemouth boss Iraola will be missing the services of Sinisterra, with the Colombian winger not travelling after picking up a knock in last week’s win over Arsenal.
Alex Scott will also be missing for the Cherries, with Iraola ruling him out for “definitely more than six weeks”.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“Very difficult. Very demanding team, at home, or away, they play always with the same style – pressing a lot, being competitive, in duels. They are playing so active in everything. Quick. Individually, they have very good players and a strong structure. Their coach is progressing and improving a lot. To beat them, to get tomorrow three points, I know it is going to be very difficult, and we will need the players’ full energy, full focus, really being clinical in every decision we can have tomorrow, and the supporters behind us.” – Unai Emery
“They are playing very well. They are getting great results. They are on a great run, which is always difficult to break. They also have almost everyone available, so for sure they are very dangerous. It is still very early in the season. We have had quite logical results, so we are around where we wanted to be. We have to continue this because now we are talking about Aston Villa, Manchester City and Brentford. It won’t get any easier.” – Andoni Iraola
