Our prediction for this Premier League match:
Bournemouth
Match Time & Date:
12/08/2023
16:00
Prediction: 1-0
West Ham
Vitality Stadium will host Saturday’s season opener between Bournemouth and West Ham United. Even though Bournemouth’s preseason was a mixed bag, with the team beating the likes of Hibernian, Southampton, and Lorient, while losing to Maccabi Tel Aviv and Atalanta, they are surely capable of matching the Hammers on home soil. The club chiefs have added the likes of Justin Kluivert, Romain Faivre, Milos Kerkez, and Hamed Junior Traore to the squad in the summer transfer window, while Jefferson Lerma, Jordan Zemura, and Jack Stacey are no longer parts of the team.
The capital club, meanwhile, continue life without key midfielder Declan Rice, who joined Arsenal for a fee of €116.60m and we predict that 24-year-old is going to bet sorely missed. Since Manuel Lanzini, Arthur Masuaku, and Gianluca Scamacca have left the club as well, home win should be considered. The hosts will be without Smith, Fredericks, Tavernier, and Semenyo in the season opener, while there are no injury worries in the away team.
Highlighted Player (Tomas Soucek):
Tomas Soucek is a Czech Republic international who plays for both Slavia Prague and the Czech national team. Soucek is a product of Slavia Prague football academy and after spending several years at the likes of Viktoria Zizkov and Slovan Liberec, he returned to the Sinobo Stadium outfit in the 2017/2018 season.
Tomas Soucek has established himself as a first-team regular at Slavia Prague and he made his debut with Czech Republic on November 15, 2016 in a friendly against Denmark. The 192-cm tall midfielder has 13 caps for Czech Republic U21 team as well.
His main position on the field is defensive midfield, but he is used as central midfielder and centre-back as well. Tomas Soucek was born in Havlickuv Brod on February 27, 1995. His preferred foot is right and his contract with Slavia Prague should expire on June 30, 2024.
Highlighted Team (Bournemouth):
Bournemouth are a professional football club that was formed back in 1890. The Cherries secured promotion to the Premier League in the 2015/2016 season, with the team making it to the English top flight for the first time ever.
Bournemouth play their home games at Dean Court and the capacity of the stadium is 11,469.
The Cherries enjoyed a very successful season on their Premier League debut, with the team beating the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United in the national championship. Glenn Murray scored the winner for Bournemouth in the 1-0 win over the capital club at Stamford Bridge and that is probably the greatest victory in the club’s history.
Bournemouth have been participating in the FA Cup since 1913, but they have yet to win the trophy in the prestigious competition. It has to be noted that the club’s original name Boscombe Athletic Football Club was changed to Bournemouth back in 1923 as the club owners wanted the Cherries to be more representative of the district.
