Bournemouth vs Swansea City Preview: Previous Encounter, Key Battle, Team News & More

Bournemouth host Swansea City at Dean Court on Saturday.  

Swansea have never beaten Bournemouth in the Premier League, but will need to overturn that record this weekend if they want to move out of relegation trouble.

The Swans currently sit just one point above the drop zone, and face 18th placed Southampton next Tuesday in arguably their most important game of the season. 

Bournemouth have all but secured their Premier League safety. Eight teams currently sit below the Cherries in the league and Eddie Howe will be fairly confident that his team won't be dragged into the relegation dogfight.

Previous Encounter 

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The last time these two teams played each other was last November, when Paul Clement was still in charge of Swansea. 

The game finished 0-0, and was fairly evenly contested. 

The main focus of the match though, was on Paul Clement's future at the club. The fairly dower performance did nothing to ease the pressure on the now Reading manager, and he was sacked just a month later. 

Swansea did have the ball in the net in the game, but Wilfried Bony's finish was disallowed as Jordan Ayew was adjudged to have committed a foul in the build up. 

Key Battle

Joshua King vs Kyle Naughton and Mike van der Hoorn

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King will be Bournemouth key man for this weekends fixture. The Norwegian has scored three in his last five games and has looked dangerous for the Cherries cutting in off the left flank. 

Naughton hasn't impressed for Swansea this season and will need to be defensively astute to contain someone with Joshua King's pace. 

King's tendency to drift inside means that Naughton and Van der Hoorn will have to marshal the Norwegian between them, which will cause problems for Swansea. 

Team News

Swansea will be hampered by injuries to key players ahead of the weekend's fixture. 

Wilfried Bony, Leroy Fer and Kyle Bartley will all be sideline for the Welsh side, while Federico Fernandez and Luciano Narsingh will be assessed ahead of kick off, but are unlikely to start.

We may see the return of Tammy Abraham to the starting line up after he was unable to play in last weekends game against his parent club, Chelsea. Abraham though, is unlikely to displace Jordan Ayew from the side after the Ghanaian picked up Swansea's player of the season award this week. 

Eddie Howe's Bournemouth will be without Junior Stanislas, Harry Arter and Tyrone Mings for Swansea's visit, meaning Jordon Ibe is likely to be brought into the forward line. 

Possible Bournemouth Starting XI: Begovic; Aké, Cook, Francis; Daniels, Gosling, Cook, Fraser; King, Wilson, Ibe

Possible Swansea City Starting XI: Fabianski; Naughton, Van der Hoorn, Mawson, Olsson; Ayew, King, Sung-yueng, Carroll, Clucas; Ayew

Prediction

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Swansea's problem has been their inability to score this season. The sales of Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurðsson last summer have really hampered them, and the replacements that were brought in have failed to fill the void the two star men left behind. 

A 2-1 loss at Southampton last weekend means Bournemouth have won only one of their last 10 Premier League matches, and that poor run may continue with Swansea desperate for a result. 

The game will be a close encounter, and a repeat of the fixture earlier in the season doesn't feel like a bad prediction. 

Bournemouth 0-0 Swansea City

Bournemouth 0-0 Swansea City