AFC Bournemouth v West Ham United
Premier League, Vitality Stadium, Monday 16 December 2024, 8pm GMT
West Ham United make the trip south to face AFC Bournemouth for another episode of Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, looking for a third away win of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign.
Having seen off Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 on Monday, the Hammers will be hoping it can be the beginning of an impressive string of results, aiming to boost their current 14th-place standing as we approach the halfway stage of the season.
It is almost four months since the two teams met in the Carabao Cup second round at London Stadium, where Jarrod Bowen’s late effort fired the Hammers to a 1-0 win over Andoni Iraola’s team.
The Cherries have proved to be one of the most eye-catching outfits in the top flight so far this term, sitting in eighth - and just three points off the top four at the time of writing - with three successive Premier League wins against Wolves, Tottenham Hotspur and Ipswich Town.
All signs point to an enticing match-up at Vitality Stadium, then, with both teams full of confidence and aiming to further their momentum in the midst of the hectic festive period.
Tickets…
West Ham fans are advised that the Club’s allocation of 1,307 tickets have sold out to Bondholders and Season Ticket Holders with 40+ Loyalty Points.
Travel…
With this being a Monday Night Football fixture, West Ham United supporters will likely opt to drive to the game, as public transport links back to London after the final whistle are virtually non-existent.
Supporters wishing to drive are best served by either exiting the M25 at junction 10 and utilising the A3 and M27, or leaving at junction 12 and travelling down the M3. The M27 and A338 will take travelling fans into Bournemouth, with parking available at the stadium.
The South Stand car park, behind the ground, operates charges on a 24/7 basis. Fans are advised the car park regularly fills up around 90 minutes before kick-off and can take up to an hour to empty after matches.
If you do want to take the train and stay overnight on the south coast, direct services leave London Waterloo fairly regularly, taking just under two hours to get to Bournemouth station.
Some trains are also available from London Paddington, but these are less frequent and supporters are advised to check their journey before travelling.
Vitality Stadium is a short walk from Bournemouth station and the route is also regularly serviced by buses. The P2 and P3 Yellow Bus services are both easily accessible from the train station and runs up to every 20 minutes. Fans should disembark the bus at Queens Park Hotel stop, which will be a total of six stops.
After the game, the last London-bound train leaves Bournemouth at 22.12, arriving at Waterloo at 01.08 after making a total of 22 stops!
How To Follow…
West Ham United’s away Premier League match with AFC Bournemouth has been selected for broadcast in the United Kingdom by Sky Sports. Coverage from Vitality Stadium will be available on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League.
If you live outside the UK, click HERE for details of Premier League listings in your territory.
You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app, and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle on our website and social media.
Live audio commentary will be available in the UK on BBC Radio London, talkSPORT and worldwide on our official website and app.
Team News…
Emerson will be suspended for Monday evening's match, having been shown his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season during the 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Elsewhere, Michail Antonio will also be absent for the Hammers, as he recovers from surgery on a lower limb fracture suffered in a road traffic accident last weekend.
Bournemouth will be without Marcos Senesi, who picked up an injury against Wolves at the end of November, with the Argentine missing the victories against Tottenham and Ipswich. Julián Araujo and Alex Scott are also likely to be on the sidelines for the Cherries, but Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra could return.
Opposition…
Despite never rising higher than tenth in the Premier League table last season, 2023/24 was considered to be a successful campaign for AFC Bournemouth.
The Cherries raised a few eyebrows when they replaced former West Ham United midfielder Gary O’Neil as head coach with former Athletic Club and Spain international right-back Andoni Iraola in June 2023.
Iraola had impressed in leading Rayo Vallecano to La Liga and the Copa del Rey semi-finals, but this was his first job in English football, so when the Dorset side failed to win any of their first nine Premier League matches, that decision looked like a gamble that had gone wrong.
The 42-year-old kept his calm, though, and with his team playing exciting, enterprising football, Bournemouth won seven of the next nine to rise to the comfort of mid-table by the season’s halfway point.
A seven-match winless run followed, but another surge of seven wins in eleven games in March and April saw Iraola’s entertaining side rise into the top half. Three closing defeats saw them finish 12th.
Runs to the fifth rounds of both domestic cup competitions were further cause for optimism and, as Iraola continues his second season in charge at the Vitality Stadium, hopes are high that Bournemouth will firmly establish themselves as a Premier League club for a second time, having initially spent five years in the top flight under Eddie Howe between 2015 and 2020.
Indeed, they have impressed so far in 2024/25, currently sitting eighth in the table - on the cusp of the European spots - having won each of their last three league fixtures.
Bournemouth fans must be sick of hearing and reading this, but for the Cherries to do this with a home stadium holding just 11,307 supporters, competing against some of the richest clubs in the world, is nothing short of sensational.
Without being patronising, supporters of the south-coast side must love this, especially when you consider their club was in the fourth tier as recently as 2010. Now, while enjoying Premier League football, the next aim for those fans will surely be continental qualification or to win a major trophy.
The Cherries quietly assembled a squad packed full of rich potential throughout the summer transfer window. Having lost top goalscorer Dominic Solanke to Tottenham Hotspur, they broke their transfer record to sign Evanilson from FC Porto, with the deal believed to be worth around £40m.
Dean Huijsen, Enes Ünal and Julián Araujo are among those who arrived at Vitality Stadium, and all aged 27 or under, it offers encouragement that Bournemouth are building for the longer term.
A number of current and former players have featured for both West Ham and Bournemouth over the years, including Jermain Defoe, Rio Ferdinand and Danny Ings.
Previous Meetings…
Monday’s contest will be the 15th time that West Ham United and AFC Bournemouth have met in the Premier League.
Both games last season finished in a 1-1 draw. A late Dominic Solanke strike cancelled out Jarrod Bowen’s opener on our most recent visit to Vitality Stadium, before James Ward-Prowse’s penalty rescued a point in the return fixture in February at London Stadium.
Prior to that, a double over the Cherries in the 2022/23 season and the aforementioned Carabao Cup victory in August have put the Irons on top when it comes to competitive matches between the two sides, with nine wins from the 20 fixtures played.
The most recent three-point haul that came at Vitality Stadium stands as West Ham’s biggest away victory over Bournemouth. The 4-0 triumph in April 2023 came thanks to first-half finishes courtesy of Michail Antonio, Lucas Paquetá and Declan Rice, before Pablo Fornals capped a brilliant afternoon on the south coast with a phenomenal, acrobatic scorpion kick.
West Ham’s first win at the Vitality Stadium came in January 2016, when goals from Enner Valencia (two) and Dimitri Payet warmed up the visiting fans on a freezing night and secured a 3-1 Premier League victory.
Before the Premier League, West Ham overcame Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in the pair's first meeting, in the FA Cup fifth round back in February 1929.
And the two clubs met in the old Second Division in 1989/90, when Harry Redknapp was Bournemouth manager, and the Londoners secured a League Cup third-round success over the Dorset club in October 1999.
Match Officials…
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistants: Lee Betts and Richard West
Fourth Official: Matt Donohue
VAR: Michael Salisbury
Assistant VAR: Mat Wilkes
Chris Kavanagh has been confirmed as the man in the middle for Monday’s Premier League match at AFC Bournemouth.
Kavanagh is from Ashton-under-Lyne - the same town in Greater Manchester where Sir Geoff Hurst was born - and began his refereeing career at the age of 13.
Now 39, he worked his way up through the officiating ranks and was promoted to the National League in 2012. He started working in the English Football League in 2014 and was invited into the Select Group of Referees, and therefore the Premier League, in 2017, where he has refereed 149 games.
Kavanagh has overseen three cup finals, including last term’s Carabao Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool and the 2021 EFL Championship Play-Off final between Brentford and Swansea City, while he also took charge of the UEFA Youth League showpiece between Benfica and Real Madrid in 2020.
He’s also refereed in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, and on the international scene in the recently-concluded UEFA Nations League.
He has refereed West Ham United on 22 previous occasions, the most recent of which was almost a year ago, in the 3-0 Premier League win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on 17 December 2023.
For more information about the officials, click HERE.
