Preview: Bournemouth vs Brentford - prediction, team news, lineups

Winless Bournemouth welcome unbeaten Brentford to the Vitality Stadium for a Saturday 3pm kickoff in the Premier League.

The Bees picked up four points across their two encounters with the Cherries last season, with a 4-1 victory at the Gtech Community Stadium in December last year followed by a goalless stalemate on the South Coast three months later.

Match preview

New Bournemouth head coach Marco Rose is still searching for his first Premier League win, after watching his side lose to Man City (2-1) before drawing back-to-back games against Everton (1-1) and Newcastle (2-2), sharing the spoils with the latter last weekend.

The Cherries were leading in all three games but failed to win any of them (D2 L1), becoming just the second team in Premier League history to do so after Chelsea in the inaugural 1992-93 campaign. However, no club has ever led in their opening four games of a season and failed to win.

Since the start of last season, Bournemouth have dropped more points from winning positions than any other Premier League team (29). They let a two-goal lead slip against Newcastle and Rose admitted post-match that his side “dropped a bit in everything”, something the German is keen to quickly rectify.

Bournemouth certainly showed signs of improvement on Tuesday, albeit against Championship opposition, as they cruised to a 4-0 home victory over Lincoln City in the EFL Cup third round, courtesy of a superb hat-trick from Ryan Christie and a late strike from Rayan.

The Cherries will now attempt to claim their first-ever Premier League win over Brentford at the ninth time of asking, having previously drawn three and lost five of their eight encounters with the Bees, who are the only side Bournemouth have never beaten in the division.

Brentford have made an unbeaten start to the 2026-27 campaign, following up a comfortable 3-0 opening-day victory over Tottenham Hotspur and a 6-1 thrashing of Birmingham City in the EFL Cup with back-to-back 1-1 draws against Leeds United and Sunderland.

The Bees frustratingly let one-goal leads slip in both of those draws, conceding an 82nd-minute penalty against the Black Cats last weekend. Keith Andrews admitted post-match that he and his players were feeling “a tinge of disappointment” after they ‘caused themselves a lot of problems’ on the day.

Nevertheless, Brentford head into Saturday’s contest with Bournemouth bidding to equal their joint-longest unbeaten run since Andrews was appointed head coach last summer, having previously gone six games without defeat in both January (W4 D2) and April (W1 D5) of last season.

Brentford’s relentless, collective work rate under their Irish coach has been clear to see in the early stages of this season, as 80.4% of their total pressures in the Premier League have been high-intensity pressures (995/1,237), with only Nottingham Forest (85%) and Brighton (82.2%) boasting a higher proportion in the division.

The Bees will certainly be buzzing to face Bournemouth this weekend, as they are unbeaten in their last 11 league meetings with the Cherries (W8 D3) since a narrow 1-0 defeat back in August 2014 when both sides were competing in the Championship.

Bournemouth Premier League form:

Bournemouth form (all competitions):

Brentford Premier League form:

Brentford form (all competitions):

Team News

Bournemouth are still having to cope without last season’s top scorer Eli Junior Kroupi (foot), as well as Amine Adli (calf), Veljko Milosavljevic (knee) and Julian Araujo (thigh), as they continue to recover from injury.

After netting a hat-trick in midweek, Christie will be pushing to start in midfield alongside in-form Alex Scott, which could therefore see Tyler Adams revert to the substitutes’ bench.

Marcus Tavernier has scored three goals in his last four Premier League appearances, while only Erling Haaland (eight) has recorded more shots on target this season than his five. The 27-year-old is expected to start in a front four including Justin Kluivert, Rayan and Evanilson.

As for Brentford, they are sweating over the fitness of defender Nathan Collins, who was forced off early in the first half of their draw with Sunderland after sustaining a calf injury.

Saturday’s contest will come too soon for midfielder Mathias Jensen (unspecified), while Sepp van den Berg (groin), Antoni Milambo (knee) and Josh Dasilva (thigh) are also sidelined with injuries.

Summer signing Jannik Schuster could be handed his first Premier League start at centre-back alongside Kristoffer Ajer if Collins if not fit to feature, while the rest of Brentford’s starting lineup could remain intact.

Kevin Schade has scored in his last two Premier League away appearances and will hope to retain his place in attack alongside Dango Ouattara and Igor Thiago, the latter of whom is without a goal in six straight top-flight matches stretching to the backend of last season.

Bournemouth possible starting lineup:

Petrovic; Smith, Hill, Silva, Truffert; Christie, Scott; Rayan, Kluivert, Tavernier; Evanilson

Brentford possible starting lineup:

Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer, Schuster, Lewis-Potter; Janelt, Sangare; Ouattara, Damsgaard, Schade; Thiago

We say: Bournemouth 2-2 Brentford

With supporters of Bournemouth and Brentford already well-acquainted with the gut-wrenching anxiety of watching leads evaporate this season, neither Rose nor Andrews will feel entirely comfortable if their side strikes first on Saturday.

Taking into account that the Cherries (12) and the Bees (11) are two of the three Premier League teams with the most draws in 2026, another share of the spoils between two evenly-matched sides could well be in store on the South Coast.

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