Will Bournemouth find first league win at Chelsea?
Written by BillyTheKid
Can AFCB Come Away With At Least 1 Point Again?
The Cherries have a very busy schedule coming up after the three-week international break. They have seven games in October: four Premier League games, Chelsea, A, Sunderland, H, Manchester U, A, Leeds U, H. Two Europa League home games, Sturm Graz and AC Milan. Aston Villa League Cup, H.
AFCB are back in action in the Premier League on Saturday at 3 pm; they are away in London at Stamford Bridge, the home of 10th place Chelsea. The Cherries are in 17th place. They have drawn 2-2 on their last two visits to the Bridge. Marco Rose will be hoping to come away with a point, if not all 3 points for his first league win.
Chelsea v AFC Bournemouth
Chelsea Win
Chelsea Win
Draw
AFCB Win
AFCB Win
Chelsea have a new manager this season; he is Xabi Alonso who is another manager who was born in the Basque Country of Spain. After having a successful career as a player, his first club as manager was Real Sociedad B. From there, he moved to Bayer Leverkusen; after 3 seasons, he joined Real Madrid for a short spell.
Alonso had a good start as manager of his new club Chelsea, winning his first two league games. Chelsea opened the season with a 2-3 away win at fellow London club and closest rivals Fulham. Their first home game was a 4-3 defeat of Brighton. They lost away against Arsenal 2-1, drew 2-2 at home against Hull City and then lost away at Brentford 3-0.
The last time we played at Stamford Bridge was towards the end of December 2025. The game had four goals, all in the first 27 minutes of the first half. David Brooks opened the scoring after 6 minutes, and Cole Palmer pulled one back for the home side 9 minutes later. Enzo Fernandez put Chelsea in the lead in the 23rd minute; only four minutes later Justin Kluivert made it 2-2 and the final score.
AFCB league visits to Stamford Bridge, AFCB have W 3, D2, L 5.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 5, D 5, L 14.
Chelsea Team News
They have signed a number of players; their biggest signing was Morgan Rogers for £117 million from Aston Villa. They have also sold a number of players; their highest sale was Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City for £125 million. They have a number of key players out injured, amongst them Caicedo, James, Palmer and Pedro. They may/may not be available for this game.
Chelsea Player To Watch
If he plays, Joao Pedro is their form player; in his four league games this season, he has scored 3 goals and leads with 3 assists. Their big signing Morgan Rogers is another with 3 goals and has 1 assist.
AFCB Team News
Alex Scott will not be playing against Chelsea, the team heavily linked with trying to sign him. Scott will miss a number of games in our heavy schedule for the next two months, including two home games against Sturm Graz and AC Milan. Another player who might be missing, apart from the long-term ones we know about, is Justin Kluivert, and David Brooks picked up a knock in the international break. One player who could be available soon is Veljko Milosavljevic.
AFCB Player To Watch
Of our 6 goals scored in 5 league games, 3 have come from Marcus Tavernier. He has scored in every other game so far, so he is due another goal. Evanilson leads with 3 assists and hopefully will score his first goal soon.
The Referee
Sam Barrott is in charge of this game; we had him against Chelsea away last season. He also took our home game against Nottingham Forest and the away game against West Ham. He has taken six games of ours over the last three seasons; 3 were wins and 3 draws.
Matt Stevenson added…
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Chelsea, prior to the international break. They had two home games (Brighton and Hull) and two away games (Arsenal and Brentford). Chelsea have gained 4 points, which is about expected. The xG value for goals scored is 5.06, compared with 7 actual goals. Chelsea have conceded 10 goals with xGc estimating 7.49 goals. Having a slightly lower xG to Hull at home is not a good sign for Chelsea.
GoalsXg.png
Chelsea have had 5 different goal scorers (Pedro and Rogers with 2 each), and 4 players have assisted (Hato and Pedro with 2 each).
The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Nothing much stands out, although apart from against Brighton, the distance between the back and front lines is quite short.
Av Pos.jpg
The following plot compares summary stats of Chelsea and AFCB over the last 4 games. Attacking statistics are all in AFCB’s favour apart from the one that matters (goals scored). Defensively, it is also in AFCB’s favour: Chelsea have conceded more goal attempts, more big chances, more xGc and have conceded 4 more goals.
Comparison.png
Possession and pass completion are similar between the two teams. AFCB are creating a lower proportion of chances and conceding a higher number of chances from set pieces.
Percentages.png
Your say…
AFCBmattjamr
It’s not a must-win, but it’s pretty close. Need to get a W on the board to get over that psychological hurdle and get a bit of breathing room between the bottom 3, especially with the mental schedule we have in the second half of October. – To join the conversation, please click here.