Written by BillyTheKid
Again, the start of a new season and the Cherries opening Premier League game couldn’t be any harder, visiting last season’s Premier League Champions Liverpool at Anfield Stadium on Friday at 8 pm, the game is being shown live on Sky. The Reds were only beaten once, and that was by Nottingham Forest. Liverpool won 14 and drew 4 in the other games.
Liverpool v AFC Bournemouth
Liverpool Win
Liverpool Win
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Draw
Draw
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AFCB Win
AFCB Win
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The last time Liverpool lost an opening game of the Premier League season was away back in the 2012-13 season, it finished 3-0 against West Brom. At Anfield, the last time Liverpool lost an opening game was the 2003-04 season when Chelsea beat them 1-2.
Liverpool have spent big in the Summer transfer market. Amongst their signings, Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for £116 million, Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt for £79 million, Milos Kerkez from AFCB for £40 million, Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen for £25.5 million and Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia for £29 million. Amongst those that have left are Luis Diaz, who has joined Bayern Munich for £65 million, also Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has signed for Real Madrid.
As for the Cherries, Andoni Iraola starts his third season in charge after his first two club record-breaking seasons of an AFCB team. As it stands, it is his final season, but hopefully once the transfer window is closed and our team get settled into the season, our manager will extend his stay on the South Coast at Dean Court by signing a new contract. With him in charge, hopefully we can expect to see good, exciting and entertaining football for the third consecutive season.
The last time our two sides met at Anfield was last September, which finished in a 3-0 victory for the Merseyside club. All Liverpool’s goals came in the first half. Two in two minutes from Luis Diaz, and the third goal came from Darwin Nunez.
In all our away league games against Liverpool, AFCB have W 0, D 1, L 7.
All competitions, AFCB have W 2, D 3, L 19.
Liverpool Team News
Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez, both out injured are doubts for this opening game. Ryan Gravenberch will miss the game due to suspension.
Liverpool Player To Watch
Eyes will be on their new expensive signing, Florian Wirtz and also Hugo Ektike. Plus, our former player Milos Kerkez. But for me, even at 33 years old, it has to be Mo Salah who has been a very consistent scorer, also with assists, since Liverpool paid £34 million for him. Last season in the league, he scored 29 goals, with 18 assists.
AFCB Team News
Some new faces in, and old ones have moved on to new clubs. The team start the season without injured players, Lewis Cook and Enas Unal. According to our manager, Ryan Christie and Luis Sinisterra, and Justin Kluivert are close to returning from injuries.
AFCB Player To Watch
Bafode Diakite, the new centre back signing, if he starts, couldn’t have had a tougher game for his debut. Be interesting to see how he gets on playing in the Premier League. Also, our other new signings, especially Adrien Truffert, are up against Mo Salah.
The Referee
Anthony Taylor is in charge of the game against Liverpool. He will be remembered for issuing 14 yellow cards in the only game he was in charge of last season, involving the Cherries; it was our home game against Chelsea.
Your say…
srdeverill said…
Who do we think will start at right back? You would think Smith, but in the final preseason game, Iraola played the other likely 4 of the back 5 together (incomings aside) with Araujo, not Smith, so I just wonder. – To join the conversation, please click here.