Match Preview
Bournemouth vrs Fulham
Premier League Match Day 19 23/24 at Vitality Stadium
Tuesday 26th December 2023 KO: 15:00
Tim Robinson (West Sussex)
Live on Amazon Prime Video
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Fulham are off to the seaside on Boxing Day with a visit to Bournemouth.
Fulham could do with an attacking pointer or two from their hosts on Boxing Day, as Marco Silva's men failed to make their 19 shots and 66% possession count for anything worthwhile against Burnley, who surprisingly left Craven Cottage with a two-goal success to their name.
Just two minutes after the second half commenced, Wilson Odobert beat Bernd Leno all ends up with a fabulous curling strike into the top corner, before turning provider for Sander Berge to complete the job with a well-placed low effort 19 minutes later.
Silva conceded that his side were made to pay for their glut of missed opportunities in West London, which leaves Fulham in an unlucky 13th place in the Premier League table, albeit with just one-point deficits to make up to Chelsea, Wolves and their imminent hosts.
Defeat to Vincent Kompany's basement battlers was a rude awakening for Fulham after their progression to the EFL Cup semi-finals, and the Cottagers are yet to rediscover the formula for success on the road, losing their last three Premier League away fixtures and going winless in their last eight such battles since narrowly overcoming Everton on the opening weekend.
Even the most ardent Cottager will admit that their Goodison Park success in August was fortuitous, and their trip to the Vitality in April ended in a 2-1 loss to Bournemouth, who have only been beaten in one of their last 12 meetings with their capital counterparts.
A new chapter of club history could be written for Bournemouth when they host Fulham at the Vitality Stadium in their Premier League Boxing Day fixture.
The Cherries marched to their third successive win in astonishing circumstances at the weekend, sinking 10-man Nottingham Forest 3-2.
Vilified referee Rob Jones gifted Bournemouth the best kind of early Christmas present at the City Ground on Saturday, as Forest defender Willy Boly was questionably dismissed for two bookable offences inside the opening 25 minutes of Nuno Espirito Santo's Tricky Trees debut.
Nevertheless, the spirited Garibaldi fought valiantly with 10 men on the pitch as Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood both breached the Cherries' backline, but Dominic Solanke had already struck twice by the time Wood headed home, and the Bournemouth marksman flaunted his aerial excellence with another brilliant header deep into added time.
As newly-appointed Forest boss Santo was left to rue the officiating performance, hat-trick hero Solanke conducted the unbridled Cherries celebrations as Bournemouth enhanced their mid-table credentials, shooting up to 12th place in the standings, behind Wolverhampton Wanderers on goal difference following their Christmas Eve beating of Chelsea.
Boasting a phenomenal 16 points from the last 18 on offer in the top flight, Andoni Iraola's crop are now just 90 minutes away from marching to four successive Premier League wins, something which Bournemouth have never done before in a single top-flight campaign.
The Cherries did enjoy a quartet of consecutive top-flight successes in 2018, but those victories were spread across two separate seasons, and Iraola's footballing philosophy has now been firmly instilled into the hosts, who have scored at least twice in each of their last six contests.
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Fulham are looking to avoid losing on consecutive league visits to Bournemouth for the first time since December 1986 and September 1990.
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Bournemouth's only defeat in their last 12 league games against Fulham (W6, D5) was a 1-0 home loss in the top flight in April 2019.
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Fulham are without a win in their past eight away league games since beating Everton 1-0 on the opening weekend of the season.
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Having lost 3-1 at Aston Villa, 4-3 at Liverpool and 3-0 at Newcastle, the Cottagers could suffer four consecutive away league defeats while conceding three or more goals in each match for the first time since March 1969.
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They are unbeaten in their last six league games on Boxing Day (W3, D3) since a 2-0 defeat to Derby in the Championship in 2015-16.
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Only Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino (five wins from five) have a better 100% winning record as Premier League managers on 26 December than Marco Silva's three victories from three.
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They had 19 shots in their defeat to Burnley, their most in a Premier League game without scoring since October 2022 against Everton.
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Bournemouth have taken 16 points from the last 18 available and have lost just one in the league since the start of November.
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The seven points they have taken from their past three Premier League home games is two more than they accrued across their previous 10 matches at the Vitality Stadium.
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They have failed to win any of their five Premier League fixtures on Boxing Day (D3, L2). Only Grimsby Town, with eight, have played more top-flight games on 26 December without winning.
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Their only win in their last 16 home league matches against sides from London was a 2-1 victory over Fulham last season.
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Dominic Solanke has only scored more league goals against Huddersfield (six) than the four he has versus Fulham, scoring in each of his previous four fixtures against the Cottagers.
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His 11 goals in 17 Premier League games this season is one more than he managed in his first 96 appearances in the competition.
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Source Ben Knapton at SportsMole/BBC Sports