Will Bournemouth Complete The Double Over Manchester United?

Written by billythekid

The Cherries after a five-game unbeaten run were defeated at Luton by 2-1. Their next game is back home at Dean Court on Saturday at 5.30 pm against Manchester United who sit in 6th place in the table and could finish well short of last season’s 75 points with seven games to play. After beating Manchester United on their ground for the first time in any competition, it would be good to see the Cherries complete the double over them in the league for the first time in their history.

Since our great 0-3 win at Old Trafford, United in their away games drew 0-0 against Liverpool, lost at West Ham 2-0, and then were beaten 2-1 by Nottingham Forest. They then had a four-game winning run with three of them away from home. First, they beat Wolves 3-4 and the games against Aston Villa and Luton Town both finished 1-2. In the Manchester derby, they lost 3-1 against City, in their game at Brentford it finished honours even in a 1-1 draw and in their last away game against Chelsea they lost 4-3.

At home since our game in December, United have W 3, D 2, L 1. Their most recent game was against a side in a three-horse race to win this season’s title. Liverpool were the visitors to Old Trafford and in a game with the first half dominated by the Merseysiders, they only went in at half-time 0-1. In the second half a mistake by a Liverpool player’s pass went to Bruno Fernandes in the middle of the pitch and he spotted the United keeper off his line to make the score 1-1 with a great finish. United went in front with another well-struck shot to take the lead, but with six minutes of normal time, Liverpool equalised from the penalty spot and that was the last goal of a game Liverpool should have won with the chances they had.

The last time our two sides met at Dean Court was last season in our last home game of the season. The only goal of the game scored by Casemiro in the ninth minute decided this fixture. It also turned out to be Gary O’Neils last game as our manager in front of the home fans.

In our home league games against Manchester United, AFCB have W 2, D 0, L 4.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 4, D 3, L 14.

AFCB Team News
Just after coming back to form it looks like we could be losing Marcus Tavernier to another hamstring injury. Also, there has been illness in the squad which could affect our starting lineup.

AFCB Player To Watch
Dominic Solanke is due a goal and if he gets it he will break the club record of most Premier League goals in a season which he jointly holds with Josh King. The other player is Antoine Semenyo, been on top form in recent games, except the most recent game at Luton, like several other players who were not 100% fit due to illness.

Manchester United Team News
They have a long injury list and the latest name to to be added to it is Marcus Rashford who had to be substituted in the game against Liverpool.

Manchester United Player To Watch
Their midfield player and captain Bruno Fernandes. Scored 6 goals in the league this season and leads with 6 assists. Scored in his last two games for his team. Their striker Rasmu Hojland had a purple patch in January and February where he scored 6 goals and had 2 assists in five games. But hasn’t scored in his last three league games.

The Referee
Tony Harrington is the referee for this game, he was in charge in our game at Leeds last season.

Matt Stevenson added…

I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Man U. These were two home games (Everton and Liverpool) and away at Brentford and Chelsea. Man U gained 5 points although the xGs suggested this was an overperformance with the team being better than Everton but being comprehensively outplayed in the other 3 games. Man U have scored 8 goals and conceded 7 with xG estimating 5.48 goals with 11.59 conceded. It is unlikely that this overperformance, in both goals scored and conceded will continue.

Man U have had 4 different goal scorers with Fernandes having scored 3 goals. 5 players have one assist each.

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. There appears to be no real pattern apart from clustering in the centre circle and lack of width (unless players are rotating which wing they are playing on).

The following graph compares summary stats of Man U and AFCB over the last 4 games. The one striking feature is the number of goal attempts that Man U are conceding which is over 25 per game and with 18 big chances across 4 games. Whilst the opposition in the last two games have been tough these are poor numbers. In contrast, AFCB are conceding less than half the number of chances and big chances.

AFCB have slightly more percentage possession at 50%. Man U appears to have been poor at defending set pieces (although they have conceded 2 penalties).

Rob151060 wrote…

Unbelievable really re the possession stat. Hope we can impose ourselves and pin them back. Remember our performance v. City? Hoping for those three magic words tomorrow night-“Manchester United Nil”. ps-sweet justice if Dango could score. – To join the conversation, click here.