AFC Bournemouth vs Tottenham Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 14, 2015 @ 02:06 pm

Eddie Howe is finally starting to suffer from the severe injuries that have impacted his relatively small squad. After more than holding their own in the opening month, they’ve picked up just 1 point from 3 games and their latest 5-1 hammering at the Etihad Stadium will have put a big dent in their already low confidence levels. The dreaded ACL knee injury has struck not only his star centre forward Callum Wilson whose goals fired them to the top of the Championship last year and also bagged 5 already this season but also their marquee signings in the summer, Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel. All 3 look set to miss large parts of the season and Howe must be left scratching his head at how he’s going to get the victories they need to insure Premier League survival.

Tottenham haven’t won in 3 also but are unbeaten in them 3 games with 3 successive draws against Monaco, Swansea City and Liverpool. Mauricio Pochettino’s men sit relatively comfortably in 7^thposition and the former Southampton manager will be desperate for Harry Kane’s season to launch as the England centre forward has just 1 goal to his name this season and they’ve struggled without their main man firing on all cylinders as he was last season. Pochettino was right to show the door to Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor but it has left them relatively short of attackers with Heung-Min Son injured and Clinton Njie still very inexperienced and learning his trade in the Premier League.

Bournemouth have faced Tottenham just once before and that was in a friendly back in 2010 where Tottenham won 4-0 so they have little to analyse in terms of previous encounters. Bournemouth have kept just 1 clean sheet in their debut Premier League season and given their injury crisis it could well be the opportunity for Harry Kane to fill his boots. Howe’s side were much better in the second half after trailing 4-1 after 45 minutes and stemmed the flow. Bournemouth were always going to suffer heavy defeats with the contrasting budgets compared to other teams but it is how they perform at home which is critical. Tottenham have just 1 victory on their travels this season against Sunderland.

Pochettino will have been delighted at how Moussa Dembele made the most of a rare start in central midfield with the suspension of Eric Dier. The Belgian has always been on the cusp of the first 11 but has not ever nailed a certain position. With the injuries to Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb there is an opportunity for Dembele to make his claim for a regular starting birth. His Belgian colleague, Nacer Chadli sustained an ankle ligament injury in the opening 10 minutes against Liverpool and will be assessed by the medical team but is set for at least a 2-3 week spell out.

Bournemouth

Stats: W-2 L-5 D-2

Recent Form - WWLDL

Tottenham 

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-5

Recent Form - LWDDD

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Bournemouth (4-5-1) – Boruc, Francis, Cook, Distin, Dnaiels, Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, O’Kane, Pugh, Murray. 

Tottenham (4-2-3-1) – Lloris, Walker, Verthongen, Alderweireld, Rose, Alli, Dembele, Lamela, Townsend, Kane. 

Injury List/Suspended Players

Bournemouth - Mings (inj), Gradel (inj), Elphick (inj), Wilson (inj)

Tottenham – Son (inj), Chadli (inj), Bentaleb (inj).

Bournemouth v Tottenham Head to Head

League Positions