MY ACCOUNT
– All four of Brentford’s home Premier League wins have been by two or more goals
– Bournemouth have lost each of their last three games by more than one goal
– Recommended Bet: Brentford -1 handicap
Two former Football League foes meet for only the second time in the top flight when Brentford entertain Bournemouth in Saturday’s teatime slot.
The Bees beat the Cherries three times in the 2020-21 season en route to promotion via the play-offs and are currently sitting proudly in the Premier League’s top half.
Thomas Frank’s men will be looking to get back to winning ways after going out of the FA Cup at home to West Ham last weekend, but the probable return of top scorer Ivan Toney should help.
Bournemouth must snap a five-game post-Word Cup losing streak that has dropped them into the thick of a relegation battle once more, but new owner Bill Foley has talked about making plenty of new signings.
Gary O’Neil’s side have struggled without the ball-carrying ability of injured midfielder Marcus Tavernier and are in the market for exciting Lorient winger Dango Ouattara and former Cherries star Arnaut Danjuma at Villarreal.
Team news
Toney should return after a muscle injury kept him out of Brentford’s win over Liverpool and last week’s cup exit.
The 13-goal striker could replace the unfortunate Yoane Wissa in attack and re-establish his partnership with Bryan Mbuemo.
Christian Norgaard, Rico Henry and Ethan Pinnock will return after being rested against the Hammers, but Pontus Jansson and Shandon Baptiste are out, while Frank Onyeka and Aaron Hickey remain sidelined for the Bees.
New signing Kevin Schade came off the bench for his debut in the cup, and the 21-year-old could now earn his first Premier League minutes as a substitute versus the Cherries.
Bournemouth midfield enforcer Jefferson Lerma has been struggling with a knee injury, but could still feature in a largely unchanged line-up from the one that faced Manchester United on January 3.
There will be at least one change, however, after Adam Smith picked up a fifth yellow card of the Premier League campaign at Old Trafford to incur a suspension.
O’Neil said Tavernier was “probably looking at a few more weeks” out when he spoke last week, so he will remain sidelined and there are doubts surrounding David Brooks’ involvement after he missed most of this week’s training because of a virus.
Goalkeeper Neto is getting closer to a first-team return, while Ryan Fredericks and Junior Stanislas have also been missing lately.
Emiliano Marcondes, James Hill and Jamal Lowe all left the club on loan this week — joining Nordsjaelland, Hearts and QPR respectively.
The stats
Bournemouth claimed 16 points in the 15 games that Tavernier started earlier this season, scoring 18 goals, but have lost all three games without hitting the net since he was sidelined.
No defender has won more aerial battles this season than Brentford’s Ben Mee (59) while Boouremouth’s Kieffer Moore (45) has the third-highest number among strikers behind Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic (72) and Toney (50).
Prediction
The Cherries’ confidence looks to have eroded sharply since the World Cup and some calamitous individual errors are being made on a weekly basis.
Contrastingly, the Bees are buzzing and even proved they can cope without top scorer Toney in their 3-1 win over Liverpool when Wissa enjoyed the limelight for a change.
Brentford, with Toney back, are likely to be operating on a different level than Bournemouth so there should be an opportunity for Frank’s team to collect another three points here.
All four of their previous home Premier League wins in 2022-23 have been by two or more goals, suggesting that they are a hard team to handle when they get on top.
Bournemouth have lost each of their last three games by more than one goal too with Brentford available to back at 11/10 with LiveScore Bet to cover a -1 handicap in Saturday’s fixture.
