Match Preview
Bournemouth vrs Fulham
Premier League Match Day 07 25_26 at Vitality Stadium
Friday 3rd October 2025, KO: 20:00
Referee:
Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
Live on Sky Sports
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Fulham will be striving to return to winning ways when they visit Bournemouth on Friday evening while Bournemouth will hope to continue their impressive start to their 2025-26 Premier League campaign
Marco Silva's side have only allowed 59 shots against their goal, and prior to their defeat against Villa, they had only conceded three times in the league.
The Cottagers lost 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium in April and drew 2-2 at Craven Cottage in December 2024, and at least three goals were scored in the two sides' prior four clashes.
A victory for Fulham against Bournemouth would be their fourth win in five matches, with the visitors netting five while conceding once in those triumphs.
The Londoners' strongest displays have come at Craven Cottage considering they are winless in their three away fixtures this term - they lost twice in that period - and they were defeated in four of their final five away clashes of 2024-25.
Though Bournemouth may be disappointed to have been held to a 2-2 stalemate by newly-promoted Leeds United last Saturday, they were fortunate to get away with a point given they created just 0.39 xG from open play.
Andoni Iraola's side's last three goals have come from set pieces, and the team have scored just twice from open play in their last five in all competitions.
The hosts' deserve praise for their performances at the back given only four teams have faced fewer shots (59), and four of the seven goals they have conceded this season came in matchweek one in August away to Liverpool.
Bournemouth's only defeat of their top-flight campaign was against the league leaders, and they have since won three and drawn two, though both stalemates came in their two most recent outings.
Supporters will hold confidence in their home record considering the club have only been beaten once in their last seven Premier League matches at the Vitality Stadium, winning on four occasions while keeping four clean sheets.
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Fulham have lost each of their last three Premier League visits to Bournemouth, while they could lose four successive away league games against the Cherries for the first time.
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Bournemouth have lost just two of their last 16 league meetings with Fulham (W8 D6), and just one of their last eight (W3 D4), going down 3-1 in February 2024.
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Fulham scored first but lost 3-1 away at Aston Villa last time out – the Cottagers have now lost four of their last seven league games when scoring the opener (W3). In the last two seasons, no side has lost more games when scoring first than Fulham (7).
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Fulham have conceded more fouls than any other Premier League side this season (88), with 25% of those committed by Sasa Lukic (22 – a league high). Lukic’s current 3.7 fouls conceded per 90 minutes is the most by a player in a season (min. 500 minutes) since Hal Robson-Kanu in 2016-17 (also 3.7).
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Fulham manager Marco Silva won his first away Premier League match at Bournemouth as Everton boss in August 2017 (2-0) but since then has won just one point in five at the Vitality, losing the last four in a row.
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Raúl Jiménez has scored five Premier League goals in six starts against Bournemouth (four for Wolves, one for Fulham) – the only start he’s not scored in against the Cherries was in a goalless draw for Wolves in August 2022.
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Bournemouth lost four consecutive home Premier League matches between February and April but since then have picked up 14 points in their last seven at the Vitality Stadium (W4 D2 L1), keeping four clean sheets.
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With 11 points from six games, this is Bournemouth’s best ever start to a Premier League campaign (W3 D2 L1) – it is three more points than they had at this stage last season (8) and eight more than in their first season under Andoni Iraola in 2023-24 (3).
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Each of Bournemouth’s last three Premier League goals have come via set pieces (penalty, direct free-kick and indirect free-kick), with only four of their previous 32 coming from a set piece. The Cherries last had four consecutive league goals from set pieces in March 2024 (four corners vs Sheffield United and Luton).
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Eight of Bournemouth’s last 15 Premier League goals have been scored by Antoine Semenyo, with the Ghanaian netting a free-kick against Leeds last time out. Since the start of April, only Erling Haaland and Jarrod Bowen (9 each) have netted more than Semenyo’s eight.
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Source Lewis Nolan at SportsMole/BBCSports