Match Preview
Bournemouth vrs Fulham
Premier League Match Day 32 24_25 at Vitality Stadium
Monday 14th April 2025, KO: 20:00
Referee:
Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
Live on Sky Sports
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Fulham visit the Vitality Stadium for Monday night's game facing a Bournemouth at risk of their worst-ever home losing run as a Premier League club.
Fulham enhanced their European qualification chances by subjecting Liverpool to their first Premier League away loss of the season last weekend, recovering from an Alexis Mac Allister rocket to strike through Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz at Craven Cottage.
A late Luis Diaz response proved futile as Marco Silva's men defied the odds to take down the champions-elect, the perfect tonic to back-to-back London derby losses to Crystal Palace (in the FA Cup) and Arsenal (in the Premier League) as they took themselves to within touching distance of the top seven.
As the Cottagers still have to take on Aston Villa on May 3, their European destiny lies in their own hands, but consistent inconsistency has prevented them from breaching the top-seven places so far; they have alternated between winning and losing their last seven Premier League games.
Precedent is therefore not on the visitors' side on Monday following their extraordinary success over Liverpool, but their goalscoring form on the road is, having netted in each of their last 14 Premier League matches away from home since their 1-0 loss to Manchester United on the opening day.
However, Fulham's attacking powers failed them in a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth at the Vitality last season, and they were pegged back twice when the Cherries visited Craven Cottage in December, as Dango Ouattara's 89th-minute leveller rescued a 2-2 draw for Iraola's outfit.
The Cherries' winless sequence continued in an engrossing 2-2 draw against West Ham United in gameweek 31, allowing the Cottagers to leapfrog them in the table with a shock 3-2 beating of Liverpool.
From genuine Champions League contenders to top-seven pretenders, Bournemouth's regression over the past several weeks has been a painful watch, and talk of top-level European football at the Vitality Stadium has quickly died down.
Andoni Iraola's men have now failed to win any of their last six games in England's top division after a topsy-turvy affair with West Ham last weekend, where South American hotshot Evanilson both started and ended the scoring either side of Jarrod Bowen and Niclas Fullkrug's strikes.
Also mourning their dreams of FA Cup glory after their quarter-final elimination at the hands of Manchester City, a 2024-25 season that promised so much for Bournemouth could now end with the Cherries languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table and dissecting their worst-ever home sequence in the top flight.
Indeed, Bournemouth have been beaten in each of their last four league matches at the Vitality Stadium and could now lose five on the spin for just the third time in their history after such streaks in 1996 and 2005, both of which came in the third tier of English football.
Bournemouth's fleeting continental hopes were handed a boost in midweek when it was confirmed that the Premier League would receive an additional Champions League place via their UEFA coefficient, but the hosts' defensive deficiencies are costing them dear, having shipped two goals in each of their last five matches in all tournaments.
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Fulham have only failed to score in one of their last eight league matches against the Cherries.
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The Cottagers have kept just one clean sheet in their last 12 league games against Bournemouth.
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Bournemouth are aiming to win three consecutive home league games against Fulham for the first time since 1931.
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Fulham's last seven results have been alternate wins and defeats (W4, L3).
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Marco Silva's side have scored at least twice in 17 Premier League matches this season, including 10 of their last 14.
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Fulham have won only three of their 21 previous Premier League away games played on a Monday (D5, L13).
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Rodrigo Muniz could become just the second Brazilian to score in four consecutive Premier League games after Richarlison, who has achieved the feat with both Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.
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Bournemouth are winless in their last six Premier League games, losing four of them.
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The Cherries could lose five consecutive home league games for the first time since 2005, when they were a third-tier club.
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Bournemouth have conceded two goals in each of their last five top-flight games.
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Evanilson has scored nine league goals this season, the most by a player in their debut top-flight campaign with Bournemouth.
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Source Ben Knapton at SportsMole/BBCSports