WATCH FOR OUR THOUGHTS AHEAD OF THE TRIP TO BOURNEMOUTH & THE OPPOSITION VIEW
TEAM NEWS
Vitor didn’t indicate any additional injuries or concerns going into Matchweek 2. He did say that a decision hasn’t been made on whether new signing Jackson Tchatchoua will feature.
For Bournemouth, Ryan Christie has been training normally this week, and Iraola hopes the midfielder will be involved in Saturday’s match. Meanwhile, Justin Kluivert has taken part in some training but the Spaniard is unsure if the forward will be available. Iraola praised new signing Amine Adli but didn’t indicate whether he would play on Saturday.
VITOR PEREIRA'S PRESS CONFERENCE
New signing Jackson Tchatchoua is available after training with the team, but “a decision will be made tomorrow” to see whether he will be involved. When asked about the defender’s qualities, Pereira replied: “He is a fast winger that can also play as a wing-back. He has strength and he is powerful. He likes to attack the space and he knows how to create problems in the system we play.”
Jorgen Strand Larsen is “committed” to the club and “preparing to play” this weekend, despite being linked with a move to Newcastle United. He added: “He is a very important player for us. I haven’t spoken with him about it, but he is committed.”
However, Pereira highlighted that “players can come and players can leave” up until the transfer window shuts.
The club is “working to get the last few players” through the door before the transfer window shuts, but he didn’t want to speak about the links to Girona’s Ladislav Krejci.
On losing key players such as Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri this summer, he said: “I believe we will still have a good team left. We’ve lost some players but we still have players that have always been in the first XI. We know what our vision is for the future, so the players are working very hard and in a way that I like – because of that I’m positive [about this group].”
He admitted that it “isn’t easy” for managers to manage their squad while the transfer window is still open because “every time we push for players that we need and we can also lose players that we want”.
Despite the 4-0 defeat, he was happy with the “true spirit, bravery and pressing” he saw against Manchester City: “We did a lot of things well, but when we commit a mistake against top players then of course they will score. I think they had five shots on target and scored four goals, this isn’t something that happens a lot. We had our chances to score also.”
On facing Bournemouth: “They are a brave team, they have an identity, they are strong and they have good players. It’s about doing what we can to improve as a team and as individuals. We can correct some of the mistakes from the last game. I believe the best way to work is to work hard to be better and better.”
He is anticipating a “very tough game” and he doesn’t know if they will get a result, but the players will be ready to “go there and compete” for the three points.
MATCH STATS & FACTS
Bournemouth have won three of their last five Premier League games against Wolves (L2), though all three victories have come at Molineux.
Wolves have never lost in five Premier League away games against Bournemouth (W3 D2), making the Cherries the side they’ve faced most often on the road without defeat in the competition.
Bournemouth lost their first Premier League home game in each of their first three seasons in the competition between 2015-16 and 2017-18, but they haven’t lost their opening home game in any of their last five top-flight seasons (W2 D3).
Justin Kluivert scored a hat-trick of penalties for Bournemouth in their 4-2 win over Wolves last season, with 25% of the goals scored in Premier League games between the teams coming from the spot (5/20), the highest ratio of any fixture with 15 or more goals.
In March and April, Wolves won six consecutive Premier League games, scoring 13 goals and conceding just four. In their five games since then, they’ve lost four (D1), scoring just three goals and shipping 12, picking up fewer points than any other ever-present side since the start of May (1).
Bournemouth have won three of their last 14 Premier League matches (D4 L7), including losing three of their last four (W1). The Cherries haven’t lost their opening two league games of a season since 2017-18.
Wolves have won just one of their last 22 Premier League matches in August (D10 L11), a 1-0 away win at Everton in 2023. Their overall August win ratio in the competition is just 14% (5 wins in 35 games), the lowest of any side to play 30+ games in this month.
Only Sunderland (396) applied more high-intensity pressures on MD1 of this season’s Premier League than Bournemouth (394), with striker Evanilson applying the joint-most high-intensity pressures in the opponent’s half of any player (43).
João Gomes made four tackles and conceded three fouls on MD1 against Man City, both the joint-most by any Wolves player in the match. Since Gomes’ Premier League debut on 11 February 2023, he leads the way for both tackles (277) and fouls conceded (156) across the entire division.
Antoine Semenyo has netted a brace in each of his last two Premier League appearances, having only scored more than once in one of his first 80 matches in the competition. He’s the second Ghanaian to achieve this feat, along with Tony Yeboah in 1995, while the only African player to score 2+ goals in three appearances in a row is Papiss Cissé in April 2012 for Newcastle.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Tom Bramall. Assistants: Simon Bennett, Craig Taylor. Fourth official: Tom Kirk.VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: Sam Barrott.
MATCH INFO
This one is a 3pm kick off at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday23rd August. This fixture will no the shown live on TV in the UK.