Bournemouth at Villa Park, slip up last weekend and some players back

Thursday was a nice run out but nicer to see Tielemans and Buendía back on the bench and getting some minutes. Nice also too see we're in the top eight, which is basically where we want to finish after these initial matches.

But the focus has to be the League and tomorrow Bournemouth are coming to town and I think it's fair to say they've had a very good start to the season. But defeat for them tomorrow means we're on the same points as them.

So for the good start they've had, it would mean we are on the same points as them. That would mean we've had a decent start too. And with Buendía and Tielemans back we can have a little more confidence.

But every match in this League is a tough one, so there can't be too much confidence. That said, we know how the manager will approach this match and we have to hope that Bournemouth keep delivering. 

And we are a long way from the business end to the season, in the way we sometimes like to refer to it, but this match is an important one because it comes directly after a match in Europe and we have had some decent momentum in the League of late. 

Winning tomorrow would make Liverpool a slip up and that's how we need to look at Liverpool. I'll be back later and tomorrow. And this post is early because today is going to get messy.

Match facts from the BBC

• Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last five Premier League games against Bournemouth (W3 D2), having lost four in a row against the Cherries before this.

• Having won their first two Premier League away games against Aston Villa, Bournemouth are now winless in three visits to Villa Park (D1 L2).

• Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 23 home Premier League matches (W14 D8), a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in August. In the last two seasons, only Liverpool (58), Man City (54) and Arsenal (52) have more home points in the division than Villa (50).

• Bournemouth lost 3-1 against Manchester City last time out but haven’t lost consecutive Premier League games since May – which were defeats against Man City and Aston Villa.

• Aston Villa have scored first in both of their last two home Premier League matches, winning both against Burnley and Manchester City. Villa have won 83% of league games under Emery at Villa Park when going 1-0 ahead (29/35), with only Graham Taylor (92%, won 12/13) having a better Premier League win ratio when scoring first on home soil as Villa boss (3+ games scored first).

• Only Chelsea (29) have had more shots on target in away Premier League matches this season than Bournemouth (24). It’s their second-best ratio for shots on target per away game in a top-flight season (4.8), behind their 5.2 last season.

• Emiliano Martínez’s error led to Liverpool’s opening goal on MD10 – since the 2020-21 campaign when he joined Aston Villa, only three players have made more errors leading to Premier League goals than the Argentinian (7).

• Aston Villa’s Ross Barkley has only been involved in more Premier League goals against Newcastle (6 goals, 2 assists) than he has against Bournemouth (4 goals, 3 assists), scoring Villa’s goal in the 1-1 draw at Villa Park in 2024-25.

• Bournemouth full-back Adrien Truffert has made the most overlapping runs in the Premier League this season (33), while only Ryan Sessegnon (18) has made more underlapping runs than he has (16). Indeed, only Crystal Palace’s Daniel Muñoz (106) has more off-ball runs into the attacking third among full-backs than Truffert (93).

• Tyler Adams has made the sixth-most tackles in the Premier League this season (29) and the third-most interceptions of any player (17). The Bournemouth midfielder scored his first Premier League goal in their 3-1 defeat to Man City on MD10.