Week 21 – Chelsea vs Bournemouth – Sport Grill

Title-chasing Chelsea host in-form Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge in an exciting Premier League encounter. 

Victory will see Chelsea stay fourth in the table, whilst Bournemouth can climb as high as fifth if better Manchester City’s result at Brentford.

Team News

Noni Madueke is available for Chelsea after illness forced him to sit out their FA Cup victory over Morecambe.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (knock) isn’t expected to be fit enough for selection.

Mykhailo Mudryk (suspension), Benoit Badiashile (unspecified), Wesley Fofana and Omari Kellyman (all hamstring) are still ruled out.

Bournemouth have no fresh injury concerns following their comeback FA Cup win over West Brom in the third round, although Enes Unal (ACL) and Evanilson (metatarsal) missed that game and will be absent for several months.

Julian Araujo, Luis Sinisterra (both hamstring), Adam Smith, Marcus Tavernier, Marcos Senesi (all muscle) and Alex Scott (knee) remain absent.

When is Kick-Off?

Chelsea host Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday 14 January at 7:30pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 3 in the UK.

Stat Attack

• Chelsea are unbeaten in their last six meetings against Bournemouth (W4, D2).
• Bournemouth have won two of their last five league visits to Chelsea (W2, L3).
• Chelsea have kept clean sheets in three of their last five meetings against Bournemouth.
• Chelsea are seeking to avoid going five league matches without a win for the first time since a seven-game winless streak from March – May 2023.
• Dango Ouattara has scored in two of Bournemouth’s last three away games.

Prediction

Although they returned to winning ways in the FA Cup last weekend, Chelsea have been in a rut league-wise with two draws and defeats apiece in their last four games so a more confident display is needed especially from a defensive perspective.

Bournemouth meanwhile are unbeaten in their last nine games across all competitions and despite losing Evanilson plus Unal to injury, they still looked dangerous in their ruthless FA Cup comeback against West Brom so can’t be underestimated as they do still possess plenty of goalscoring threats.

Nevertheless I expect this game to be a proper battle given the attacking quality on offer and given Chelsea’s recent dip, it wouldn’t be surprising if this is a high-scoring draw.

Prediction: Chelsea 2-2 Bournemouth