The second week of the 2018/19 Premier League season gets under way on Saturday 18th August. West Ham United will be playing their first home match of the season as they welcome Bournemouth to the Olympic Stadium in London.
West Ham had the tough job of travelling to Liverpool last weekend and will be hoping to put that game behind them by winning this match and securing their first points of the new season.
Bournemouth had a gentler introduction to the season with a home match against newly promoted Cardiff City. The Welsh club are the favourites for relegation this season and Bournemouth can expect a tougher test in this match.
Manuel Pellegrini could not have asked for a more difficult task in his first competitive game as West Ham boss. The former Manchester City manager took his team to Anfield and struggled to impose themselves on the match, losing 4-0.
The Hammers will point to the third goal as being offside but they were second best throughout and Pellegrini will want to see an improved performance from his players in this game. Trends show West Ham finished last season in decent form at home, losing only one of their last five matches which was to the champions, Manchester City.
In the second half of the season at home, West Ham won four of their ten home games, drawing four, including a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth. Trends show West Ham have lost 50% of their last fourteen league games by a margin of 2 goals or more.
Bournemouth could not have asked for a better opening match to the season than Cardiff City at home. The Cherries took advantage of the inexperience and nervousness of their opponents to win the game 2-0.
Coupled with their final two matches of last season, the win over Cardiff means Bournemouth have won their last three Premier League games. The wins at the end of last season came against Swansea City and at Burnley.
Bournemouth struggled away from home in the Premier League last season. Trends show they won just two of their last thirteen away league matches and have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last seven on the road.
Both teams have scored in fifteen of Bournemouth’s last twenty Premier League games.
Looking ahead to the team news and West Ham will be without the injured Winston Reid, Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll. Both Marko Arnautovic and Carlos Sanchez are rated as doubtful. Pellegrini could give home debuts to Felipe Anderson, Jack Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko.
Bournemouth will be without Diego Rico who continues to serve a suspension from last season and Junior Stanislas who is injured. New signing Jefferson Lerma is unlikely to feature in the game.
West Ham faced a difficult opponent last week but looked like a team who are going to need time to click. Bournemouth on the other hand played a familiar looking starting XI and seem the more settled of the two teams. This match presents a great opportunity for Bournemouth to pick up a vital 3 points away from home, with both teams scoring.