Bournemouth re-start their bid for Premier League survival as they take on mid-table Crystal Palace on Saturday at the Vitality Stadium.
The Cherries sit 18th in the table, level on points with West Ham and Watford, and will be battling against a Palace side who sit in a comfortable 11th place.
Palace won 1-0 in the last meeting between these two teams earlier in the season in a match that was a cagey affair. Its likely to be more of the same this time around, as this fixture has produced four draws out of the nine Premier League encounters these teams have had.
It wasn’t long ago that Palace was facing an injury crisis, but the lockdown has given a chance for key defender Mamadou Sakho to be in contention to start.
After missing most of the season David Brooks is back for Bournemouth, as is Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld and Steve cook.
The Cherries will be without star man though Ryan Fraser, as the out of contract winger has refused to extend his deal until the end of the season.
Charlie Daniels is progressing well in rehab for his long-term knee injury, but won't be available for this game.
This is an out of sorts Bournemouth team and the problems they’ve had with their defence this season seem too big to have fixed during the lockdown. It hasn’t been too great down the other end either, but they have still had talent going forward despite the absence of Ryan Fraser.
Palace isn’t exactly a team which bang in the goals either, but they’re a well-organised unit and tend to win games more often than not by being compact and defensively solid, and then capitalising on their chances. I can see this game starting out promisingly for Bournemouth, but Palace nicking a goal towards the end.
Match preview written by Luke Robinson.
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