Bournemouth vs Everton

Bournemouth and Everton are set to square off at the Vitality Stadium in a bottom-half Premier League clash.

Despite starting the season with nine winless Premier League matches, Bournemouth went into March’s international break a comfortable 14 points clear of the drop zone after a breathless 4-3 home victory against Luton Town. Andoni Iraola’s men have been in scintillating form lately, avoiding defeat in their last three league outings (W2, D1) while netting 2+ goals on each occasion. But scoring against Everton has been Bournemouth’s Achilles heel, considering they’ve lost back-to-back top-flight H2Hs ‘to nil.’ It’s worth mentioning both those clashes came at Goodison Park. It’s been quite the opposite at the Vitality Stadium, where the Cherries haven’t lost any of their six Premier League H2Hs (W4, D2) while bagging at least two goals five times on top of that.

In the meantime, Everton’s survival battle received a significant boost during the international break as the FA docked Nottingham Forest four points for breaching spending rules, propelling the Toffees four points clear of the relegation territory. However, Sean Dyche’s men have done little to hold up their end of the bargain, going winless in their last 11 league matches (D5, L6). Ending the longest ongoing such run in the Premier League looks improbable from Everton’s perspective, knowing their last away league triumph came in mid-December. They’ve since suffered four defeats on six top-flight travels (D2), failing to get on the scoresheet four times! On a more positive note, they had scored on three straight league visits to Bournemouth before a dismal 3-0 defeat in this corresponding fixture last season.