We look ahead to Tuesday’s Premier League clash at the Vitality Stadium with our Bournemouth vs Man City preview. After beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final, can City also boost their slim title chances and dent Bournemouth’s European hopes?
Bournemouth vs Man City: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer is backing Manchester City to continue their unbeaten run and end Bournemouth’s, with the visitors winning 53.5% of pre-match simulations.
Bournemouth are unbeaten in their last 16 Premier League games, the longest run of any team this season, though City are unbeaten in their last 14 games.
Manchester City have only lost their final away league game in two of the last 16 campaigns, though both of those defeats came within the last five seasons, at Brighton in 2020-21 and Brentford in 2022-23.
Manchester City will likely have to win on Tuesday to keep the Premier League title race alive.
If Arsenal beat Burnley at the Emirates on Monday, they will open up a five-point gap at the top, with City then needing to win their final two games and hope the Gunners slip up at Crystal Palace on the final day next Sunday.
The newly-crowned FA Cup winners come up against a Bournemouth side in league-best form and chasing the outside possibility of Champions League football themselves.
City will be buoyant ahead of their trip to the south coast, after former Cherries winger Antoine Semenyo delightfully flicked in the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute of Saturday’s FA Cup final to beat Chelsea at Wembley.
FA CUP FINAL 2026
Since his January move from Bournemouth, Semenyo has been involved in more FA Cup goals (five) than any other City player – with three goals and two assists – as well as becoming the first Ghanaian to score in an FA Cup final.
City have now won both domestic cups this season – also beating Arsenal 2–0 in March’s EFL Cup final – and victory at the Vitality will keep their hopes of a domestic treble alive until at least the final day.
Guardiola’s side have bounced back from the disappointing 3–3 draw at Everton that handed the initiative in the title race back to Arsenal, claiming successive 3–0 wins over Brentford and Crystal Palace respectively in the league before their cup final win on Saturday.
Semenyo, Omar Marmoush and Savinho’s strikes dispatched Palace in City’s most recent league outing, with the latter scoring just his second Premier League goal having previously failed to find the net in the 34 appearances since his first against Leicester City in April 2025.
City’s 94.1% win rate against Bournemouth (16 victories from 17) is the highest of any side against another in Premier League history, with the exception being a 2–1 defeat at the Vitality Stadium in this exact fixture last season.
Although Man City’s unbeaten run of league games now stands at 14, Bournemouth are on a streak of 16 matches without defeat, and victory on Tuesday will take them to within one point of fifth-placed Liverpool in the race for the final Champions League place.
Ahead of Semenyo’s return to the south coast, his replacement Rayan continues to impress at Bournemouth, with the 19-year-old Brazilian scoring early in the second half to beat Fulham 1–0 last time out.
Rayan has now scored in each of his last three Premier League appearances, and could join an exclusive club of teenagers to net in four games back-to-back – alongside Robbie Fowler, Nicolas Anelka, and Francis Jeffers.
As a result, through Rayan and Junior Kroupi, Bournemouth became the first team in Premier League history to have two different teenagers score across three consecutive games in the same season.
In terms of team news, Ryan Christie was sent off for the first time in 177 Bournemouth appearances against Fulham last time out, meaning he’s suspended for this clash alongside Alex Jimenez.
Lewis Cook has been given a 50–50 chance of playing by Iraola following a thigh injury, but the same issue is set to rule Julio Soler out.
Rodri was Manchester City’s only doubt ahead of the FA Cup final but came through the first 65 minutes of the game unscathed, giving Guardiola a fully-fit squad after the win at Wembley.
Bournemouth vs Man City Head-to-Head
The reverse fixture between these two sides ended in a 3–1 victory for Manchester City at the Etihad in November, with Erling Haaland hitting a first-half double either side ofTyler Adams’ equaliser.
Nico O’Reilly slotted home City’s third in the second half, condemning Bournemouth to a defeat that kicked off an 11-game winless streak, immediately prior to their current run of league-best form.
Man City v Bournemouth stats 2025-26
City also hosted the Cherries in the penultimate match of last season, with Marmoush – who has scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since April 2025 – hitting a goal-of-the-season contender in a 3–1 victory.
Bournemouth vs Man City Prediction
Manchester City are heavy favourites to win this game, according to the Opta supercomputer.
Across 10,000 simulations, the visitors came out on top in 53.5% of the outcomes, while despite their own run of superb league form, Bournemouth’s chances of victory sit at just 23.5%, only slightly ahead of the 23% probability that this match finishes level.
Bournemouth vs Man City Prediction Opta
Bournemouth vs Man City Predicted Lineups
Bournemouth: Djordje Petrovic, Adam Smith, James Hill, Marcos Senesi, Adrien Truffert, Tyler Adams, Alex Scott, Marcus Tavernier, Rayan, Junior Kroupi, Evanilson.
Head coach: Andoni Iraola
Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Marc Guéhi, Nico O’Reilly, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo, Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland.
Head coach: Pep Guardiola
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world, and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Tuesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Premier League Stats Opta
Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over onX, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.