Tottenham Hotspur travel to the south coast to face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Thursday, with both sides needing all three points for very different reasons.
While Spurs will be looking to enhance their European ambitions, Bournemouth will be aiming to ease their relegation fears and steer clear of the bottom three.
Having said that, four straight defeats since the resumption have significantly hampered Bournemouth’s chances of staying in the Premier League.
After narrow defeats to Crystal Palace (2-0) and Wolves (1-0), the Cherries were thrashed 4-1 by Newcastle and 5-2 by Manchester United.
However, Bournemouth problems started long before the unexpected lay-off. The south coast side have only managed to win three of their previous 22 league games.
Not only have the team conceded nine goals in their last two outings, but their defensive problems are underlined by the fact that their last clean sheet came all the way back in December.
Meanwhile, Tottenham has only lost one of their four game since the restart, although the team’s performances have been pretty unconvincing.
Spurs have scraped wins against West Ham (2-0) and Everton (1-0) recently, but their defensive problems were on full display in a damning 3-1 loss to Sheffield United last week. Nevertheless, Jose Mourinho’s side remain in the running for a European place.
With the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd enjoying strong runs, Tottenham can’t afford to drop too many points from now until the end of the season. Thankfully for Spurs, their next opponents aren’t likely to offer much resistance.
Head-to-head: Tottenham were on the right end of a 3-2 scoreline in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign, with Dele Alli and Harry Wilson both bagging braces on that occasion.
However, recent meetings between these two sides have swung largely in Spurs’ favour. Indeed, Tottenham have only lost one of their last nine clashes against the Cherries.
Jose Mourinho will also take confidence from the fact that his players have scored over 2.5 goals against Bournemouth in six of their last nine attempts.
Team news: Charlie Daniels, Steve Cook, Jack Stacey and Simon Francis are all sidelined for Bournemouth, while Andrew Surman and Chris Mepham are on the verge of returning from injury.
Young defensive duo Japhet Tanganga and Juan Foyth will miss out through injury for Tottenham, while Dele Alli could make a return after missing out on the win against Everton.
Bournemouth are fighting for their lives at the moment, but all the signs are pointing towards a high-scoring victory here.
Forebet predicts that both teams will score. However, Spurs should cruise to a comfortable victory by netting over 2.5 goals.
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