QPR welcome Bournemouth to Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium in a festive Bank Holiday Monday clash in the race for promotion from Sky Bet Championship.
Victory would see QPR reclaim fifth in the standings, whereas Bournemouth can go top with victory.
Team News
QPR manager, Mark Warburton is hoping to have several players available after seventeen players resumed training in recent days, following a series of positive Coronavirus cases.
Lee Wallace, Sam McCallum, Moses Odubajo (all hamstring), Lyndon Dykes (ankle), Jordy De Wijs (calf) and Albert Adomah (unspecified) are doubts.
Ilias Chair, Seny Dieng and Osman Kakay are all set to depart QPR for Africa Cup of Nations but the club could have all three players available for this match, if discussions with Morocco, Senegal and Sierra Leone prove fruitful.
Bournemouth will welcome Jefferson Lerma back from suspension after the midfielder completed a three-match ban.
Adam Smith (knee) and David Brooks (illness) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- QPR are unbeaten in three of their last five meetings against Bournemouth (W2, D1, L2).
- Bournemouth are winless in their last four league visits to QPR (D1, L3).
- Andre Dozzell has been yellow-carded in three of QPR’s last four home matches.
- Bournemouth haven’t lost seven consecutive league games since embarking on a nine match winless run in Premier League between February – July 2020.
- Keith Stroud is again the referee for this fixture – having been in charge of the reverse fixture in September as Bournemouth won 2-1 at home.
Prediction
Having not played for nearly three weeks since their loss to Stoke due to a lengthy Coronavirus outbreak, it is very difficult to predict how QPR could play although they will need to improve defensively and in their finishing if they’re to win here.
Bournemouth meanwhile enter this match still in their downward rut but having managed to avoid an outbreak, Scott Parker’s Cherries will certainly sniff a chance of victory but they need a reaction after a disastrous second-half effort at Middlesbrough last weekend of poor quality.
The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium though has been a hoodoo ground for Bournemouth recently which will give a fresh-legged QPR hope, yet I do suspect that they could well be rusty early on which is where Bournemouth need to strike early and seize the lead.
Prediction: QPR 0-1 Bournemouth
Result: QPR 0-1 Bournemouth