High-flying West Ham travel to solid Bournemouth in a tough challenge for both teams

Both teams have started the Premier League season very well, West Ham travel to the Vitality Stadium in the hunt of getting the defeat to Oxford United behind them and focusing on the European qualification places.

AFC Bournemouth host West Ham United in a very important game for both game for both sides. Both sides exited the Carabao Cup in mid-week with Bournemouth losing 2-0 to Burton Albion and West Ham lost 4-0 to Oxford United.

Team news

Bournemouth may have Adam Smith returning in this fixture after a hamstring injury. The Cherries will be without Daniel Gosling, David Brooks, Junior Stanislas, Charlie Daniels and Arnaut Groeneveld for this game.

West Ham will be without Michail Antonio and Winston Reid due to injuries.

On the back of the defeat to Burton, Eddie Howe admits AFC Bournemouth ‘lacked everything’ in defeat at Burton Albion.

“I am hugely disappointed with the game and I feel sorry for the fans that travelled here to Burton.

“We never got playing really and that really cost us in this game, if only we were able to get playing I believe we could have gone through to the next round of this cup competition.”

Manuel Pellegrini reflected on the poor game in the Carabao Cup third round which saw West Ham destroyed 4-0 by Oxford United.

“We played against a team who played very well,” he said. “It’s easy to say that we played very badly, but I think Oxford did everything they needed to win this game here at home for them.

“They played with a lot of motivation, with desire and we didn’t play well.

“If you give them time and space all of them are good players. They scored four goals, they had other chances and I think we only created one in the first ten minutes of the game and one in the last minute.”

Head-to-head

In the last five fixtures between the two clubs, AFC Bournemouth have won against West Ham three times with the other two matches been settled with a draw.