Overview
It can be said that Bournemouth is the "king of draws" of the Premier League this season, when they have shared points up to 16 in 34 matches - at least 3 more matches than any other team. Most recently, they dropped the lead in the 2-2 draw against Leeds United right at home.
However, Bournemouth still maintains an impressive 14-match unbeaten streak (6 wins, 8 draws), thereby continuing to nurture hopes of winning a ticket to European cups for the first time in history. The team is currently ranked seventh and only one point behind Brighton in the top 6 race.
Premier League history shows that only 2 teams have failed to reach the top 6 after a 14-match unbeaten streak or more - Wimbledon in the 1996-1997 season (ranked 8th) and Chelsea in the 2015-2016 season (ranked 10th). This means Bournemouth must not be subjective in the last 4 rounds against Crystal Palace, Fulham, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest, if they want to close the season in a complete way.
Under the supervision of new coach Marco Rose, Bournemouth understands that a European cup ticket will be an important factor helping them keep key players such as Eli Junior Kroupi, Alex Scott or Marcos Senesi - names that are receiving a lot of attention in the transfer market.
Bournemouth enters the upcoming match with a stable home record when they have only lost 2 out of 17 matches in the league (6 wins, 9 draws), and are unbeaten in the last 5 encounters with Crystal Palace (2 wins, 3 draws), after a series of 5 consecutive defeats before that.
In the opposite direction, Crystal Palace is aiming for a continental goal on a different path. 4 years after bringing Eintracht Frankfurt to win the Europa League, coach Oliver Glasner is getting closer to the UEFA Europa Conference League final after a 3-1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of the semi-finals.
Ismaila Sarr scored after only 21 seconds - the fastest in league history - before Daichi Kamada and Jorgen Strand Larsen sealed the victory, even though Palace only controlled the ball 31%.
Although the Conference League is a top priority, Glasner has not given up the goal of improving his position in the Premier League. The gap between Palace (13th) and Bournemouth (7th) is only 6 points, making the direct confrontation particularly important.
However, Palace's away form is still a question mark. They just lost to Liverpool 1-3 at Anfield, ending a 4-match unbeaten streak, and have also lost 7/13 recent away games in the league.
However, Palace has a fairly good head-to-head record at Vitality Stadium, with 5 clean sheets in the last 8 away matches, including 2 wins 2-0 and many goalless draws.
Personnel situation
Bournemouth received positive signals when Justin Kluivert returned to training with the first team after a knee injury that caused his absence from January 3. However, Andoni Iraola believes that the next match may come too early for the Dutch striker to reappear. Meanwhile, Julio Soler still has a thigh problem, and Lewis Cook continues to be absent due to a hamstring injury.
On the other side, Crystal Palace is still affected by injuries as Evann Guessand, Eddie Nketiah and Cheick Doucoure are not ready to return, although Guessand is making positive progress.
Expected lineup:
Petrovic, Jimenez, Hill, Senesi, Truffert, Christie, Scott, Rayan, Kroupi, Tavernier, Evanilson.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Richards, Lacroix, Canvot, Munoz, Lerma, Hughes, Sosa, Pino, Johnson, Strand Larsen.
The match between Bournemouth and Crystal Palace takes place at 8:00 PM on May 3rd (Vietnam time).
