AFC Bournemouth v West Ham - Monday 8 pm

billythekid

billythekid

UTC Legend
This Could Be A Pre Christmas Cracker

After our late win at Portman Road our team have now won three games in a row, two away and one at home. Our next game is on Monday at 8 pm back home at Dean Court where our visitors are West Ham United, the game is live on Sky. We have only met the Hammers once before in December and that also was an evening game, it was on Boxing Day 2017 and it turned out to be a real cracker, ending in a 3-3 draw.

This time last year, including two games in November, was the time our side had that great unbeaten run of seven league games, which included six wins and a draw. In December AFCB had four wins in a row. Can we equal that on Monday night? It would be another good boost for the club and fans if we did going into Christmas games.

At the end of last season West Ham and David Moyes departed ways after his second time as the club manager from December 2019 until May this year when his side finished 9th in the Premier League. He was replaced by a Spaniard in former Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui who had also been manager of Porto, Real Madrid and Sevilla as well as his country Spain.

In his first season as the West Ham manager his side haven’t had the best results in the opening 15 games and it seems as with one or two other managers he is under pressure to keep his job. Away from home they have beaten Crystal Palace and Newcastle United 0-2. Drawn 1-1 with two other London clubs, Fulham and Brentford. They have lost 4-1 against Spurs, 3-0 against Nottingham Forest and 3-1 against Leicester City. At home they have W 2, D 2, L 4, the second win was against Wolves in the recent game.

The last time AFCB and West Ham met at Dean Court was the opening game of last season and it was the first game under our new manager Andoni Iraola. The Hammers took the lead five minutes into the second half with Jarred Bowen scoring. It was late in the game when the Cherries equalised through Dominic Solanke and that was the final goal of the game. Both sides had hit the woodwork, West Ham twice and AFCB once.

In all our home league games against West Ham, AFCB have W 2, D 4, L 2.
All competitions, AFCB, have W 4, D 7, L 9.

AFCB Team News
Tyler Adams should be available after being rested for the Ipswich Town game after suffering with cramp after the Spurs game. Marcus Tavernier is the latest to join our injury list with a hamstring injury.

AFCB Player To Watch
Antoine Semenyo had a good game for us against Ipswich Town and was the only player involved all ratings coming second as best player, tackles and equal second for shots, plus easily top with 6 dribbles.

West Ham Team News
Emerson is suspended for this game. Michail Antonio in hospital after having surgery on a lower limb fracture.

West Ham Player To Watch
Jarrod Bowen is their form player this season. Top scorer with 4 goals and top with 4 assists, scored and had assist in their game with Wolves and was MOM. Scored the only goal when West Ham beat us in the League Cup and also their goal in our opening home Premier League 1-1 draw last season.

The Referee
The man in charge is Chris Kavanagh, he took our away game against Aston Villa and issued 13 yellow cards, seven for Villa.
 
Kavanagh at Villa was one of those refs who started the game handing out yellows for fun, before forgetting all about it later in the game when he realised what he'd done. Wildly inconsistent. Something to watch out for.
 
Not really sure what the Lopetegi style of play is. Watched them play Wolves the other night but couldn’t quite work it out. Anyone with superior insights into the game enlighten me?
 
The thing to be aware of with this game is to be very wary of West Ham raising their game in view of the Antonio situation. They will want to win the game for him so, we must be alert to this.
 
In addition, I am wondering how the Echo are reporting that we are going to put a strong side out against West Ham. How can this be when we have Aroujo, Adams, Taverner, Senesi, Scott and Sinnistera all injured. What planet are these Echo reporters on!
 
We seemed to have managed ok without Sinisterra, Adams, Scott and Araujo up until now. Senesi and Tav are more recent absences so time will tell. The problem isn't this game, the next one or the one after that, it will be the cumulative effect of not being able to adequately rotate players during the Christmas period into the new year.
 
Reality and Realism said:
In addition, I am wondering how the Echo are reporting that we are going to put a strong side out against West Ham. How can this be when we have Aroujo, Adams, Taverner, Senesi, Scott and Sinnistera all injured. What planet are these Echo reporters on!
Click to expand...
Strong enough to beat Wolves and Ipswich, and who says Adams is injured, he was rested after 2 games as part of his rehab after a long time out.
 
Reality and Realism said:
In addition, I am wondering how the Echo are reporting that we are going to put a strong side out against West Ham. How can this be when we have Aroujo, Adams, Taverner, Senesi, Scott and Sinnistera all injured. What planet are these Echo reporters on!
Click to expand...
Could ask the same question to you
Planet negativity probably
 
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for W Ham. These were two home games (Arsenal and Wolves) and two away games (Newcastle and Leicester). W Ham have gained 6 points, although xG suggest 3 could be more representative, which strangely would be from a game they lost (Leticester). W Ham have scored 7 goals and conceded 9 with xG estimating 6.42 goals with 8.38 conceded.

Goals Xg.jpg

W Ham have had 5 different goal scorers with 2 each for Wan Bissaka and Soucek. Bowen has 2 assists.


The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Generally, the formation is quite narrow, potentially making it a scrap for second balls, although the forward position seems dependent on opponents and score, with a defensive block against Newcastle, where they were winning, and much more attacking against Leicester where goals were needed.

Av Pos.jpg

The following plot compares summary stats of W Ham and AFCB over the last 4 games.

We have similar goal attempts per game but many more big chances, although goals scored are similar as we have missed a lot of good chances. W Ham have conceded more chances, and big chances, resulting in considerably more goals conceded. xG and xGc are both strongly in Bournemouth’s favour. W Ham have had four errors leading to chances and AFCB three.

Comparison.png

Across the four metrics of possession and pass completion are similar, however W Ham appear to be more creative from set pieces, with a low proportion of chances coming from open play. AFCB have conceded a high proportion of chances from set plays so this is where W Ham may target us.

Percentages.png
 
Given our winger issues, that Semenyo suspension now looks a blessing. Still need to sweat on Kluivert though who has four.
 
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