Swansea and head coach Paul Clement are in huge trouble. They are second from bottom, not playing as well as the only team below them in the table and have lost 7/8, the team is totally devoid of confidence or self belief and cannot put a 90 minute performance together. Other teams can smell the fear and are hunting them down like a pack of hungry hyenas. They can play alright for 20 minutes, but not 90 and the £66m they got for Llorente, Sigurdsson and Cork looks expensive as it will cost them double that and more in lost Premier League income and it left the Swans devoid of leaders on the pitch . If Wilfried Bony was the striking answer, I have no idea what the question was ? He has played 220 minutes of football in the last 53 weeks, not scored a goal and is barely even a pale shadow of the player he was in 2013 and 2104, which now seems a very long time ago. Tammy Abraham is a young striker with big potential and an eye for goal, but had played 53 minutes at this level before this season, has not scored in four and all the offensive threat seems to be in his basket, which seems unfair and he is, anyway, a major doubt today.

 

Bournemouth are on the up, a club I like and one who almost always look to play good football, they may not have beaten much last week, but the 4-0 defeat of Huddersfield (it could have been more) will have done wonders for confidence levels, ahead of that I wrote ...........

 

Two struggling teams clashing often means goals and I will stick with that, even though the Terriers are scoreless in five away league and cup starts since opening day. They are currently 10th courtesy of some early results and a pair of hard earned recent home wins, but that is flattering in the extreme and for my money, they are nowhere near that level and ahead of a recent home match with Tottenham Hotspur I wrote ...........
 

The Hammers dominated and won 2-0 and it could /should have been an even more emphatic win. Town have subsequently drawn with Leicester City here at the John Smith's stadium and away to Burnley, lost at Crystal Palace in the League Cup, scoring just the one goal across those four starts. They are well enough organised defensively, but have ridden their luck in my opinion and are just not creating enough at the other end of the pitch and when they do, are not currently taking those chances.

They lost that 4-0, but have subsequently beaten Manchester United and WBA in West Yorkshire, not sure how, the last result might ultimately be the one which costs Tony Pulis his job, central defender Christopher Schindler was dismissed there and will be suspended today, he has barely missed a game in the last two seasons under his countryman boss David Wagner and the back ups have close to no experience at this level. They could go with Martin Cranie, he has made three top flight starts, the last in 2005 when he was a teenager (now 31) ! They are going to need a goal or two to get something out of this.

I like Bournemouth as a club, they always try to play football and to win games, that approach has served them well in the Premier League, at least until this season when they are currently only one point outside the drop zone. They have not been as adventurous it has to be said, I hope that has been a blip and not by long term intent, that is alien to most of the players, the head coach and club. Anyway, they have a good series of fixtures in the next month , before a tough looking end of the year (both Manchester clubs and Liverpool back to back) and I expect them to be going for it in these games. They do tend to do that in these fixtures and have won their last five starts here against newly promoted teams. Those wins have come by a combined 17-3, with all going "over" and Bournemouth leading at half time in four, we need that early breakthrough again, but a good chance it will come. The Bournemouth-Bournemouth HT/FT double result at circa 3.0 makes some appeal, but I will go with............

 

They led 2-0 at the half. Callum Wilson (pictured) scored a hat-trick and he Afobe, King and Defoe (out again today) given them big offensive options and ones that Swansea don't come close to.

 

1.75 units Bournemouth -0.25 ball 2.36 asian line/Sportmarket.