Bournemouth meet Sunderland in a massive showdown in the race for Premier League survival.
Victory would lift second-bottom Bournemouth out of the relegation zone and up to 15th in the table, whilst third-bottom Sunderland can climb to 13th with a win.
Team News
Bournemouth have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 3-0 Europa League win over Sturm Graz.
Alex Scott (quad), Julian Araujo (thigh), Eli Junior Kroupi (foot) and Veljko Milosavljevic (knee) are ruled out.
Sunderland could be without Wilson Isidor due to a knock which saw him sit out their 2-1 Europa League victory away to Torrense.
Dan Ballard, Thomas Meunier (both hamstring) and Romaine Mundle (knee) remain ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Bournemouth host Sunderland at Vitality Stadium on Sunday 18 October at 2pm BST, live on Sky Sports+ in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Bournemouth are unbeaten in four of their six previous Premier League meetings against Sunderland (W2, D2, L2).
- Sunderland have won one of their three previous Premier League trips to Bournemouth (W1, D1, L1).
- Antonio Silva has made more top-flight clearances than any other Bournemouth player this season (41).
- Granit Xhaka has created more successful short passes than any other Sunderland player this season (267).
Prediction
Although they clinically dispatched Sturm Graz in the Europa League on Thursday night, Bournemouth are in serious top-flight trouble coming into this game as they sit in the relegation zone without a win so they need to bring that European form in to this game and be clinical again.
Sunderland meanwhile were quite wasteful away to Torrense in Portugal and particularly in the first half but crucially found two lucky touches to get the win, which avoided what could of been an embarrassing defeat but they too need to sort out their defending if want to end their top-flight rut.
A draw also won’t do either team a favour in terms of getting out of the relegation zone so I expect a good attacking battle, but I honestly can see a draw coming as both teams have similar goalscoring and conceding records in their first six league games, which makes this hard to call.
Prediction: Bournemouth 1-1 Sunderland
Result: Bournemouth 2-0 Sunderland