Chelsea vs Bournemouth 14/12/19

14 December 2019

Chelsea will look to overcome their Premier League (PL) crisis when they lock horns with the struggling Bournemouth side at Stamford Bridge this weekend.

Although they’ve sealed a place in the Champions League knockout stage with a 2-1 home win over Lille at the weekend, the hosts have recently overseen a dip in form. Three defeats in their last four PL outings (W1, L3) have seen Chelsea allow fifth-placed Manchester United to reduce the gap to just five points. However, the Blues have pulled off four victories in five of their previous PL home matches, with a 1-0 defeat to West Ham being a lone exception. The majority of Chelsea’s PL home games this season have been hard-fought, as four of their five league results (win/loss) here have come via a single-goal margin. Also, the Pensioners have endured mixed fortunes in their last four top-flight home H2Hs with Bournemouth (W2, L2), with none of those clashes seeing both teams score.

Meanwhile, the visitors travel to Stamford Bridge frantically looking over their shoulders, as they sit only one point clear of the relegation territory. The Cherries are going through a dreadful period, having suffered five consecutive league defeats, drawing a blank in the last two. Frustratingly for Eddie Howe, four of those Bournemouth’s losses in that five-game sequence have come via a narrow one-goal margin, with four of those matches seeing them concede at least one goal inside the first 45 minutes. Things are unlikely to improve for the traveling side here, as they’ve returned just one point from their last five PL road trips, failing to find the net in three of those matches.