Bournemouth vs West Ham

Longing to put the last nail on Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham United, Bournemouth take on the Irons at the Vitality Stadium in Monday night English Premier League match.

It was 2-1 each in gameweek 15, when Andoni Iraola’s side staged a comeback and saved two crucial points for Ipswich Town while West Ham won a heated ‘El Sackico’ against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Whereas it may have been all about the tangos during Strictly season, it was all about the Dango during Bournemouth’s fight against Ipswich at Portman Road last weekend as Cherries came from behind to record a stunning win after Chaplin opener.

Dango Ouattara, who came on in the 87th minute also came up with an exquisite cross from which Enes Unal made it two goals all with some helpful help from the woodwork, before the former set up the latter for the winner in the fifth minute of added time.

This thrilling victory that completed the turn around in Suffolk marked Bournemouth’s third successive top-flight triumph after thrashing Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers to place them among the top contenders of English Premier League and virtually within a Stone’s throw of Europe.

This is a record for the Cherries, who have never had 24 points at the end of the first 15 games of the Premier League season – praise from Iraola and his coaching staff as the Bournemouth management reportedly plans a new contract for the head coach.

Victory on Monday would be the fourth on the Spin for the hosts, and this will be the longest victorious streak in Premier League at the moment, and 12 points of the last five home games, including victories over the Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester City and Southampton.

Iraola is anticipated to sign a new contract with Bournemouth soon, but if the Hammers hadn't lost their crucial basement match against Gary O'Neil's Wolves—who were also vying for their own manager's stay of execution—his opposite number, Lopetegui, might have been terrified of the dreaded P45.

Jarrod Bowen stepped up when it mattered most for Monday's visitors, following in Ouattara's footsteps with a game-changing goal and assist, albeit from the first whistle rather than off the bench. After Matt Doherty had sent the teams back to square one, Bowen delivered a deep corner for Tomas Soucek to head back across goal before curling home a fantastic winner.

The Irons guaranteed that they would enter the weekend with an unbeatable advantage over the relegation group by flawlessly recovering from crushing losses to Arsenal and Leicester City. Regardless of what happens, they will not fall below their present 14th-place ranking.

However, the statistics book does not favor the London crop, as they have lost five of their seven top-flight games against teams that began the gameweek in the top half of the standings and have been defeated right after each of their four Premier League wins this season.

West Ham, whose last victory in this matchup occurred during the Eddie Howe days of January 2019, has already defeated Bournemouth this season, defeating the Cherries 1-0 in the EFL Cup second round to go seven games undefeated against Monday's hosts.

Aaron Cresswell may make his 300th Premier League appearance for the Irons on Monday since Antonio is one of just two players who will not be playing for the visitors, along with the suspended Emerson Palmieri, who received his fifth yellow card of the season the previous game.

During his pre-game news conference, Iraola disclosed two fresh Bournemouth injuries: Marcus Tavernier will be out for a few weeks due to a hamstring issue, and defender Marcos Senesi is expected to miss three or four months due to thigh surgery.

Unal's highly fortunate equalizing goal in the victory over Ipswich shouldn't cause him to replace Evanilson at the top of the attack, but the latter's absence should allow Portman Road hero Ouattara to start wide.