Written by BillyTheKid
Can AFCB Equal Club Record Against Third-Place United?
The Cherries are now 10 games unbeaten, hoping to equalise the club 11 game unbeaten record in the Premier League, which was set last season. It will be a tough ask against third-placed Manchester United, our next visitors to Dean Court on Friday at 8 pm. Also being shown live on Sky.
AFC Bournemouth v Manchester United
AFCB Win
AFCB Win
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Draw
Draw
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Man Utd Win
Man Utd Win
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Since our 4-4 draw with United’s Ruben Amorim’s side, they lost 2-1 away against Aston Villa, beat Newcastle United at home 1-0, and also at home drew 1-1 with Wolves. Away against Leeds United, his side drew 1-1. He was sacked as Manchester United manager the day after the game at Elland Road.
He left United with his side in 6th place after 20 games. For their next game away at Burnley, in a 2-2 draw, Interim manager Darren Fletcher took charge. Former coach and player for Manchester United, Michael Carrick, was appointed their new manager on the 13th January until the end of the season.
Michael Carrick won his first four games, three at home. Drew the next game and won two more games before his first defeat. That’s the best opening results of any United manager since the 2018-19 season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won his first six league games and went on a 12-game unbeaten run, which included winning 10 games, drawing 2.
Away from home, they beat Arsenal, the league leaders, 2-3 and Everton 0-1. Drew 1-1 with West Ham. Lost 2-1 against Newcastle United.
At home, Carrick’s side has won all their games. They beat second-place local rivals City 2-0, then three London clubs, Fulham 3-2, Spurs 2-0 and Crystal Palace 2-1. The recent game against Aston Villa finished 3-1.
The last time our two sides met at Dean Court was in April last year. It was a game that ended with controversy. Antoine Semenyo put the Cherries in the lead in the first half. In the 70th minute of the second half, Evanilson was booked for a foul on a United player. After a VAR review, the decision was upgraded to red, and AFCB were down to 10 men. In the sixth minute of injury time, United equalised through Rasmus Hojlund. The red card decision, which may have cost our team 3 points, was later overturned on appeal.
Home league games against Manchester United, AFCB have W 2, D 2, L 4.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 5, D 6, L 14.
AFCB Team News
One back from injury against Burnley in Ben Gannon-Doak, and one out in Tyler Adams through injury, and he seems a doubt for the Manchester United game.
AFCB Player To Watch
Alex Scott has been one of our most consistent players in recent games in midfield.
Manchester United Team News
Lisandro Martinez, Matthijs de Ligt and Patrick Dorgu are out injured. There is a doubt over Bryan Mbeumo as he was seen to have limped off the pitch as he was substituted against Aston Villa.
Manchester United Player To Watch
Their captain, Bruno Fernandes, has been in fine form for his team. In his last 10 league games, he has scored 2 goals and has had 9 assists. He has scored 7 goals and has the most assists in the Premier League so far this season with 16, beating David Beckham’s United record of 15 assists. Benjamin Sesko, their £66 million signing, had a very lean spell goal-wise with 2 goals up until the away game against Burnley in January. Since then, he has scored 7 goals in 9 games, 4 goals coming on as a substitute.
The Referee
Stuart Atwell is in charge of this game. He took five of our games last season. At home against Brighton, Manchester City (FA Cup) and Aston Villa. Away against Everton and Newcastle United.
Matt Stevenson added…
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Man U. They had two home games (C Palace and A Villa) and two away games (Everton and Newcastle). Man U have gained 9 points which is about right although the Villa game was tighter than the scoreline suggests. The xG value for goals scored is 6.01, compared with 7 actual goals. Man U have conceded 4 goals with xGc estimating 4.49 goals. Both attack-wise and defensively Man U are slightly overperforming.
Goals Xg.jpg
Man U have had 4 different goal scorers (Sesko with 3 and Casemiro with 2). Three players have assists, with Fernandes having 3.
The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Mbeumo often plays high on their right side, but in neither away game have Man U been overly attacking, even when Newcastle played the second half with 10 men.
Av Pos.jpg
The following plot compares the summary stats of Man U and AFCB over the last 4 games. Attacking statistics are largely in Man U’s favour, being higher in all the metrics except xG. Defensively, it is again largely in Man U’s favour, apart from the most important, goals conceded, as despite having an xGc of about 2 more, AFCB have conceded 3 fewer goals. AFCB have been largely overperforming on xGc but largely underperforming on xG.
Comparison.png
Possession is slightly more for AFCB, who have a lower pass completion percentage. AFCB have created a higher proportion of chances created from set pieces with both sides conceding a relatively high proportion from set pieces.
Percentages.png
Your say…
Braithwell said…
Whatever we do, don’t let Cunha score and do that wind-up dance, I bet he can’t wait to after that Wolves sending off. – To join the conversation, please click here.
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DJ
I have been a writer and website administrator on the largest AFC Bournemouth fan website for almost 25 years. Previously on a now defunct fan network and since 2005 on vitalfootball.co.uk We have been nominated for various fan website awards down the years, however we have always been the bridesmaid…