Can Cherries Cap Off Season With A Win At Chelsea?

Written by billythekid

After a disappointing afternoon in our last home game of this season against Brentford, the Cherries next game is also against another London club, this time the last game of a very enjoyable season, away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday at 4 pm. Let’s hope it’s third time lucky, after defeats against Arsenal and Brentford. Whatever the result, we now know our manager Andoni Iraola has committed his future to our club, which is very good news for our club and its fans as we go into the Summer break.

Mauricio Pochettino is in his first season in charge of Chelsea has seen his side have a mixed start to the season and after his first 20 league games and up to the end of 2023 his side had 28 points. Going into the last game of this season, Chelsea in 2024 after 17 games are 6th in the table with 60 points, much better than the first half of the season.

Since our game back in September at Dean Court, at home Chelsea have beaten Brighton, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Everton, Spurs and West Ham. They have drawn Arsenal, Manchester City and Burnley. The defeats at Stamford Bridge have been against Aston Villa, Brentford and Wolves. Away from home, they have W 7, D 4, L 6.

Chelsea have won their last 4 home games and are unbeaten in six games at Stamford Bridge, scoring 22 goals and conceding 7 goals, kept a clean sheet in their last three, scoring 13 goals.

The last time our two sides met in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge was in December 2022, AFCB lost to two first-half goals from Kai Havertz and Mason Mount.

AFCB league visits to Stamford Bridge, AFCB have W 3, D 0, L 4.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 5 , D 2, L 11.

Chelsea Team News
On the injury front, they have been missing Robert Sanchez, Carney Chukwuemeka, Wesley Fofana, Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia. Their latest injury is Mykhailo Mudryk injured against Brighton. Reece James suspended.

Chelsea Player To Watch
Cole Palmer is on top of his game at the moment, scoring 12 goals (4 penalties), 3 assists in his last ten league games. In total this season he has scored 22 goals and has 10 assists.

AFCB Team News
Milos Kerkez is available for selection again after serving his three-game suspension. No news of any new injuries.

AFCB Player To Watch
Dominic Solanke could round off a great season after scoring 19 Premier League goals if he scores at Stamford Bridge. This would beat the joint club record for the most away goals in a Premier League season that he presently shares with Josh King and Callum Wilson.

The Referee
Anthony Taylor is our referee, he took charge of our home game against Sheffield United.

Matt Stevenson added

I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Chelsea. These were two home games (Spurs and West Ham) and away at N Forest and Brighton. Chelsea have gained maximum points, although Spurs had the higher xG and the Forest and Brighton games were close. Chelsea scored 12 goals and conceded 3 with xG estimating 9.52 goals with 5.36 conceded.

Chelsea have had 8 scorers with Jackson having 4 and Palmer 2. Palmer is the only player to have more than 1 assist.

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. I don’t know if wingers change flanks but Chelsea appear to be compact centrally with few wide.

The following graph compares summary stats of Chelsea and AFCB over the last 4 games. Defensively the sides look comparable, but in attack, Chelsea have been creating a lot more big chances and have scored more goals.

Chelsea have had more percentage possession. Chelsea have created a higher percentage of their chances from dead-ball situations than AFCB.