AFCB need to find something extra to beat Norwich

Last season Bournemouth didn't find playing Norwich City at all easy with a blank score sheet in both games only earning one draw and a defeat. Scoring against Norwich has been a problem and this August the Canaries have signed a new defender Xavi Quintilla from Villarreal. They have conceded two goals in their two Championship games, but Bournemouth will need to be at their best against the second favorites,  behind Brentford, to lift the Championship title this season.

AFCB will try for the third time to score against
Norwich City having failed in the last two meetings

Norwich have lost Jamal Lewis to Newcastle United but have not been as deeply scarred from their Premier League exit as Bournemouth. Daniel Farke remains in the managerial hot-seat and will be seeking an immediate return to the top flight. This game is likely to be a good indicator of whether Bournemouth or Norwich are better suited to earn that quick return to the top flight.

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For this match, Norwich has declared Emi Buendia and Marco Stiepermann available for selection, but Kieran Dowell and Jacob Sorensen are expected to miss out due to injuries. Norwich's big goal threats will no doubt come from Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki, the latter of which scored against Preston North End in Norwich's last league match.

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Bournemouth's difficulty has been in keeping clean sheets, and with Lloyd Kelly a doubt, they may have to reshuffle their backline. It should be a tightly contested game but Bournemouth needs to find something up front to get past Norwich and may well need a couple of goals with Bournemouth's leaky defence. Solanke has been rested in midweek for this game, but Sam Surridge is also in good form. I'd like to see both strikers get on at some point, but with Danjuma also rested and available and perhaps Josh King ready to return, there are options for Tindall.

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The advantage is with Bournemouth for this home game, despite having had a busy week. These are the games they will need to shade if they want to keep gaming the front-runners for the promotion places.

Norwich Away Form
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AFCB Home Form
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Possible AFCB line up

AFCB Subs: Travers, Stacey, Zemura, Gosling, Billing, King, Surridge

Norwich could take Bournemouth down with them

This weekend's game is another massive game in the season for AFC Bournemouth and Norwich City. It's not inconceivable that this could be a Championship fixture next season. Norwich may be cut adrift on 14 points but if they win this game that will put them just three points below Bournemouth and could effectively do much to scupper Bournemouth's chance of beating the drop.

A draw last time we played Norwich City - AFCB need to improve on that.

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A draw wouldn't do either side much good either. Eddie Howe will be setting up the Cherries to do all they can to win this game and I have no doubt that Daniel Farke will do the same for Norwich. While Norwich are at the foot of the table they have drawn their last two home matches against good opposition in Crystal Palace and Tottenham. They haven't had the crisis of goal scoring a badly as AFCB either having only failed in two of their last 11 matches.

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Norwich's problem is that while they have been in games they have always just come out the wrong side of results. their last defeat against Man United was unusual to see a 4-0 defeat. It's been much closer than that in most of Norwich's games and they have the ability to counter-attack with great speed. Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki are their star performers, but there is a good team spirit that has not been depleted despite the fact that they are propping up the table.

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Norwich City are certainly good enough to beat Bournemouth. It is probably their last chance to really stake a claim to hang in the league and start to close the gap but if they manage that they will severely damage Bournemouth's chances of escaping as well. Norwich are a decent side at home and Bournemouth need to be very aware that this is probably their last chance to give themselves a foot up out of the bottom three.

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Norwich City Home Form
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AFCB Away Form
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Cherry Chimes' previous post - Do Bournemouth's hopes rest on a fit Josh King?

Which Norwich City will turn up at Dean Court?

I was one of the few bloggers who looked at Norwich City at the start if the season and thought, they could stay up and surprise a few teams. My views was in part shaped by what a close game the Canaries gave AFCB's players in the Carabao Cup last season. But what I didn't expect was them to be good enough to beat Man City at home.

Norwich fans visit Dean Court today, but will they have their feathers clipped?

The matches have not been all as well celebrated as Norwich's win against the defending Champions. Last time out they were battered 1-5 at home by Aston Villa. The Canaries only other League win came at home against Newcastle United. So on the road it has been a bit of a slippery slope, with no wins and a hefty 4-1 defeat against Liverpool on the first night of the season as well as defeats to Crystal Palace, Burnley and West Ham United.

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Still, everyone has noticed that Norwich are scoring goals and most of them are coming from their Finnish striker Teemu Pukki, who has six goals from his eight appearances. He's been well supported by Todd Cantwell who has two goals from midfield.

Like Bournemouth, though, Norwich have struggled to keep a clean sheet. They have also lost Tim Krul for two games with a back problem, although he could be back for the Bournemouth match. A bigger miss is probably Christoph Zimmierman who was the star performer at centre-back for Norwich City last season. Grant Hanley another centre-back is also injured. So you can see that Daniel Farke has had to make a few changes.

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All of this is perhaps good news for Bournemouth fans to hear, but Norwich City are in the bottom three and they know they'll need points to get out of there, and that they can't expect to survive on home form alone.

Norwich City last time out below. Expect a few changes as they have several players coming back.

33 McGovern, 

2 Aarons, 24 Amadou, 4 Godfrey, 12 Lewis

10 Leitner, 23 McLean, 17 Buendía, 18 Stiepermann

14 Cantwell, 22 Pukki

AFCB Home Form

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Norwich Away Form

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Look out for my answers to some Norwich City blogger questions at Norwich City My Football Writer.

An unchanged team for me for AFCB

Subs: Boruc, Francis, L Cook, Surman, Ibe, Fraser, Danjuma

Norwich City Press conference


AFCB TV preview