Cherries with compulsory task against PUFC
The first of the Championship from Bournemouth gets a visit from the table cellar. The in-form kickers from Peterborough, who are in a relegation spot, drop in on the Cherries. However, the home side have not been doing well either recently with six rounds of games without a treble until Christmas.
But the form crisis was ended with two victories and Fulham took over the top of the table. For the match at the Vitality Stadium between Bournemouth and Peterborough, the prediction includes a goal by Dominic Solanke on the side of the hosts.
Bournemouth – Statistics & current form
The red-and-blacks may have dipped in recent times as described, but at least Dominic Solanke has been consistently reliable. The striker ranks third in the scoring charts and has already scored 18 goals in his 25 appearances for Dean Court’s men.
The 24-year-old also struck consistently in the recent wins over Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff.
Christie has his debut goal
The recent 3-0 win over the Welsh also came with a sense of achievement for Scotland international Ryan Christie. The attacking newcomer from Celtic was finally able to celebrate his first goal in 20 league games with last year’s sixth-placed team.
Thanks to the clear victory and the conquest of the top of the table, the self-confidence of the second league champions of 2015 should now have received a boost again. With this in mind, the odds on a home win with at least a two-goal difference in the clash between Bournemouth and Peterborough are also worth considering.
Will the Cherries score at least twice?
It is also worth predicting that the home side will score more than two goals. The latter prediction is supported by the second best home attack on the side of the hosts in a league-wide comparison.
Only Blackburn Rovers score better in front of their home crowd, topping coach Scott Parker’s side’s average of 2.16 goals in home games.
Predicted line-up of Bournemouth:
Travers – Davis – Mepham – Stacey – Lema – Cook – Kilkenny – Anthony – Christie – Lowe – Solanke
Last matches played by Bournemouth:
Championship
12/30 2021 – Bournemouth 3 – 0 Cardiff
12/27 2021 – Queens Park Rangers 0 – 1 Bournemouth
12/18 2021 – Middlesboro 1 – 0 Bournemouth
12/11 2021 – Bournemouth 0 – 2 Blackburn
12/03 2021 – Fulham 1 – 1 Bournemouth
Peterborough – Statistics & current form
Coach Darren Ferguson has had to take the spectator role with his team in recent weeks. Several games of “Posh” were cancelled due to numerous quarantine measures. For this reason, the visitors have not played a league match for more than two weeks.
Previously, the kickers from the east of the country presented themselves very weak: Only one victory was achieved in the review of the past nine games in the Championship. One of PUFC’s main shortcomings this season has been their glaring weakness away from home: no team in the league scores worse away from home than United!
Peterborough are the Championship’s shooting gallery away from home
No fewer than eleven of the twelve away games so far have ended in defeat for Peterborough. The defensive side has been the most vulnerable: Ferguson’s team has conceded an average of 2.75 goals on the road – clearly the worst figure in the Championship.
The shaky defence is coupled with the second weakest attack in the British lower house. It is obvious that after the departure of Ivan Toney to Brentford from the Premier League in the summer of 2020, who was the top scorer in League One at the time and made the switch to London, a comparably strong striker is no longer available.
Although the visitors have Jonson Clarke-Harris, the top scorer in League One last season, the 27-year-old has not been able to build on his great performances from last year. In fact, he seems to have reached his performance limits one level higher. A paltry four goals to date bear out this assessment.
The lack of quality is also noticeable in the offensive, especially away from home, because no team scores fewer goals away from home than United: a meagre 0.5 per game!
Predicted line-up of Peterborough:
Cornell – Thompson – Knight – Edwards – Tomlinson – Burrows – Norburn – Grant – Taylor – Clarke-Harris – Dembele
Last matches played at Peterborough:
Championship
12/18 2021 – Blackpool 3 – 1 Peterboro
12/11 2021 – Peterboro 2 – 1 Millwall
12/04 2021 – Nottingham Forest 2 – 0 Peterboro
11/27 2021 – Peterboro 0 – 0 Barnsley
11/24 2021 – Blackburn 4 – 0 Peterboro
Bournemouth – Peterborough Direct comparison / H2H record
The last time “Boscombe” and the promoted team from League One faced each other was last September. The match in the first leg ended in a goalless draw. It was the first meeting in ten years. Thanks to the draw, the home side are now unbeaten in three meetings (1-2-0).
On the other hand, the home record from their point of view is capable of improvement: Three of the past five home games since the turn of the millennium have been lost (2-0-3).
Bournemouth – Peterborough Tip
Peterborough finished second in League One last season and made the step up to the second tier. However, there are signs of an immediate move back to the country’s third tier.
The visitors are in a relegation spot and are hardly competitive away from home, as evidenced by their poor away defence and eleven defeats in a dozen away games. For the clash between Bournemouth and Peterborough, the betting is on Dominic Solanke to score.
The Championship’s third-best goalscorer is in good form and should get enough chances to score against the league’s weakest away defence. On top of that, the visitors will be a little rusty, having not played a league game for more than two weeks due to match cancellations.
The lack of competitive practice is another minus point for them. Bet365 offers betting odds of 1.95 on the clash between Bournemouth and Peterborough.
