At A Glance
A new season begins for Aston Villa at the Vitality Stadium when they journey south to take on newly promoted Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Fresh hope and optimism has swept across the club ahead of Steven Gerrard’s first full campaign in charge, with the head coach heartened by a strong pre-season.
Villa, armed with new recruits Diego Carlos, Ludwig Augustinsson and Boubacar Kamara, saw off Walsall, Leeds United, Brisbane Roar and Stade Rennais in their warm-up matches, while they also fought back to draw with Manchester United.
Bournemouth are back in the top flight after Scott Parker guided them to second place in the Championship last term.
The Cherries spent two seasons in the second tier following their relegation in 2019/20 when Villa finished a single point above them.
The south coast side will be looking towards Dominic Solanke to provide the goals to keep them up after he netted 29 times in the Championship last season.
Standout Stats
Bournemouth’s first ever Premier League game in August 2015 was a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa – they’ve won all three of their league meetings with the Villans since then, each by a 2-1 scoreline.
Aston Villa have won just once on the five previous occasions they’ve kicked off a Premier League campaign against a promoted side (D1 L3), though that victory did come at Bournemouth in 2015-16.
After losing their first-ever meeting with Bournemouth 3-0 in October 1971, Aston Villa have scored in each of their last eight against the Cherries in all competitions. Nine of their 11 total goals against them have come in the second half of games, including all four in the Premier League.
Aston Villa have lost two of their three opening day Premier League matches since returning to the top-flight in 2019 (W1), shipping three goals in each defeat: 1-3 vs Spurs in 2019-20 and 2-3 vs Watford in 2021-22.
Bournemouth are unbeaten in their last 10 home league games (W6 D4) since a 1-0 loss to Hull in January. However, in the Premier League the Cherries have won just three of their last 13 at the Vitality Stadium (D3 L7).
Aston Villa finished the 2021-22 Premier League campaign with just two wins from their final 11 games (D3 L6), with those victories coming against Norwich City and Burnley, who were both relegated.
Bournemouth boss Scott Parker and Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard met 15 times as players in the Premier League, with Gerrard winning nine to Parker’s four (two draws). All four of Parker’s victories against Gerrard came in home games (twice with Charlton, once with Newcastle, once with West Ham).
Aston Villa’s Philippe Coutinho has been involved in three goals in his last two Premier League appearances against Bournemouth (2 goals, 1 assist), scoring and assisting in his only previous visit to the Vitality Stadium in a 4-0 win for Liverpool in December 2017.
Dominic Solanke has been involved in 20 goals in his last 22 home league games for Bournemouth, scoring 17 and assisting a further three. Solanke was the highest-scoring English player in the top four tiers of English football last season (29).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa and Bournemouth were scrapping at the wrong end of the Premier League when they met at Vitality Stadium in February 2020.
The Cherries were well on top in the first half, leading 2-0 at the breakthrough Philip Billing and Nathan Ake.
In the second half, Jefferson Lerma’s red card offered Villa a route back into the game but they could only muster one goal via debutant Mbwana Samatta.
Team News
Steven Gerrard has only two senior players missing as he looks to mastermind an opening day win, Keinan Davis and Kortney Hause.
Emiliano Buendia, Tyrone Mings and Calum Chambers are all fit to play after missing the final pre-season friendly against Stade Rennais.
Gerrard’s counterpart Scott Parker will be without new signings Joe Rothwell and Ryan Fredericks.
Meanwhile, David Brooks is continuing his recovery.
The Boss
“I’m expecting an energetic stadium, I know the capacity isn’t one of the biggest in the Premier League but it’s a really tight crowd there, they’re on top of you. It’s a tight pitch. I know Scott, he’s very competitive, they should be full of confidence after their promotion last year and they’ve made some new signings to freshen the squad up. So we expect a really tough game. Every game in the Premier League is a challenge and tough, especially away from home, first game of the season. So the stage is set, the challenge is going to be tough and tricky, but I feel like we’re ready and it’s been very much about us in our preparation and I’m looking for the best version of us.”
Steven Gerrard
