At 22 o'clock on December 3, Beijing time, the two matches of the 14th round of the 2023-24 English Premier League will start at the same time, Aston Villa, which is in the championship group, will challenge the relegation team Bournemouth away, and the "Blues" Chelsea will face the "Seagulls" Brighton at home. Both games have their own highlights, and a brief analysis is as follows:
Latest standings.
After 13 rounds, Aston Villa have 28 points and a goal difference disadvantage, temporarily sitting in fourth place, just two points behind Arsenal at the top of the table.
Brighton have 22 points and are provisionally eighth. Chelsea are 10th on 16 points. Bournemouth are 17th with 12 points, just three points ahead of Luton Town in the relegation zone.
Bournemouth v Aston Villa
Bournemouth is a very characteristic team in the Premier League, and "relegation" should be the most realistic goal for Bournemouth, of course, this team still has a certain quality, and has won two consecutive games in the last two rounds, beating Newcastle United and Sheffield United.
Why is Bournemouth Brighton's nemesis?Bournemouth have won four of the last five meetings between the two teams, with Aston Villa's only win coming last season after Unai Emery took charge of Aston Villa.
Looking at Bournemouth's record, there is another characteristic - 4 wins and 6 losses in the last ten games, without a draw.
Aston Villa is a little "home dragon, away bug", with only 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses in the Premier League away record so far this season. Coupled with the fact that Aston Villa still has the "burden" of the Europa League in midweek, this game still has to prevent the away team from winning.
Chelsea v Brighton.
The Blues' biggest problem for Chelsea is a lack of consistency, perhaps due to injuries, and while Pochettino has not been left unavailable, it is clear that he has not been able to put out the strongest squad in theory.
Chelsea's 4-1 win away to Tottenham Hotspur in the 11th round originally made fans think that Pochettino had found a way to stimulate Chelsea's "vitality", but the winless run in the next two rounds quickly brought the "Blues" back to the reality of "chicken feathers".
Compared with more established teams such as Manchester City and Newcastle United, Chelsea's hard power is still slightly lacking.
Brighton's performance this season is quite remarkable, after all, this is a team with extremely little European experience, and it is not easy for De Zerbi and his players to perform well in both the Premier League and the Europa League.
Especially after the 1-0 win away to Greek side AEK Athens in midweek, both De Zerbi and Brighton players felt that "Brighton were the side that didn't play well but won the game". In fact, this kind of "hard-fought victory" is precisely a sign of a team's growth.
For this game, Chelsea have an all-round advantage, and under normal circumstances, it should be a home win, but I personally hope that Brighton can bring back three points in an upset.
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