Bournemouth face Sunderland in a mid-table Premier League clash at the Vitality Stadium.
Victory will lift Bournemouth up to seventh for at least a few hours, whilst Sunderland can displace the Cherries and climb to eighth with a win.
Team News
Bournemouth have no fresh injury concerns to report following their their goalless draw at West Ham last weekend.
Julio Soler (unspecified), Lewis Cook, Ben Doak (both hamstring) and Justin Kluivert (knee) remain absent.
Sunderland will be without Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey due to calf injuries suffered in their 3-1 defeat at home to Fulham.
Jocelin Ta Bi, Romaine Mundle (both ankle) and Dennis Cirkin (hamstring) will also be sidelined.
Bertrand Traore (knee) could return but Reinildo (knee) remains absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Bournemouth host Sunderland at Vitality Stadium on Saturday 28 February at 12:30pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Bournemouth have claimed seven points in five previous Premier League meetings against Sunderland (W2, D1, L2).
- Sunderland have won one of two previous Premier League visits to Bournemouth (W1, L1), having lost 2-0 in September 2015 then won 2-1 in November 2016.
- Bournemouth have lost four of five previous home matches against Sunderland across all competitions (W1, L4), of which their first three clashes at the Vitality Stadium ended in 1-0 wins for the Black Cats.
- Andoni Iraola’s Cherries are looking to keep consecutive top-flight clean sheets for the first time since August.
- No Sunderland player has been involved in more league goals this season than Enzo Le Fee (8), with the Frenchman having registered four goals and assists apiece in 26 appearances
Prediction
Now just two points off seventh-placed Brentford, Bournemouth have definitely found momentum over the past two months but they now need to be more clinical than they were at West Ham if want to put pressure on the Bees, yet they can’t afford to underestimate Sunderland’s quality.
Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats though have won one of their last five league matches and were just clinically outplayed by a lively Fulham team, whose movement and intensity on the ball was too much for them which is a worry because I can see Bournemouth producing similar quality.
I however do expect this to be a tough battle because Sunderland know that defeat would be a big blow for their surprise hopes of unlikely European qualification, especially now that they’re realistically staying up so might as well give European qualification and the FA Cup a good go.
Although my instinct is that this could end in a draw, I do think Bournemouth might just edge this if there’s a winner.
Prediction: Bournemouth 2-1 Sunderland
Result: Bournemouth 1-1 Sunderland
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