Bournemouth and Aston Villa will look to take one more step towards their respective European aspirations at the cost of each other when they meet at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday. The Cherries revitalized their hunt for a European berth by beating Arsenal 2-1 last weekend.
Aston Villa bounced back from two successive defeats by beating Fulham 1-0 at Villa Park last Saturday.
Bournemouth did the unthinkable last weekend, beating Arsenal on the road after failing at that exact endeavour eight times. To make things sweeter, they came back from behind to snatch all three points and further galvanize their pursuit of a spot in the Conference League.
They are currently eighth in the Premier League table and trail seventh-placed Villa by seven points. As such, a defeat on Saturday will officially elimintate them from top-seven contention for European berths.
But if results in the rest of the league matches and the FA Cup final go their way, the Cherries could still secure a Conference League play-off place.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa will be prepared to pull out all stops to make a final push for a Champions League berth. Prior to getting their European dreams back on track with a win over Fulham last weekend, Villa had fallen to Crystal Palace in the semi-finals of the FA Cup a couple of weeks ago.
That loss came on the back of a 2-1 defeat they suffered in the league at the hands of fellow Champions League aspirants Manchester City at the Etihad.
Villa currently trail fifth-placed Chelsea by just three points and anything is possible as we enter the last three gameweeks of the 2024-25 Premier League season.
Saturday's contest at the Vitality Stadium will be between two well-matched teams going hell for leather given what's at stake. There should be goals in this one but given the Cherries' struggles at home, Villa might just be able to eke out a narrow win here.
Prediction: Bournemouth 2-3 Aston Villa
Tip 1: Result - Aston Villa to win
Tip 2: Game to have over 2.5 goals - Yes
Tip 3: Both teams to score - Yes