Today’s match officials
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Referee: Craig Pawson.
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Assistants: Timothy Wood and Wade Smith.
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Fourth official: David Webb.
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VAR: Paul Tierney.
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Assistant VAR: Lee Betts.
Those teams: As expected, Illia Zabarnyi returns from the Naughty Step to take his place in Bournemouth’s defence. It’s Andoni Iraola’s only change to the team that lined up against Spurs last weekend. James Hill drops to the bench, having deputised ably for Zabarnyi during his suspension.
Brentford field the same side that started their game against Aston Villa last weekend, a match in which they had two legitimate penalty appeals turned down and were perhaps a little unlucky to lose.
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Cook, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez, Christie, Adams, Tavernier, Kluivert, Semenyo, Evanilson.
Subs: Dennis, Brooks, Scott, Ouattara, Sinisterra, Soler, Jebbison, Hill, Winterburn.
Brentford: Flekken, Ajer, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Norgaard, Janelt, Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Schade, Wissa.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Van den Berg, Mee, Yarmolyuk, Konak, Maghoma, Kim, Morgan, Fredrick.
Early team news
Regularly serenaded by Bournemouth fans who have tailored the lyrics of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ in homage to their Ukrainian centre-back, Illia Zabarnyi is expected to start today after serving a three-match ban. Out injured since November, Julian Araujo and Marcos Senesi are both back in training but will not feature today. Adam Smith and Enes Unal remain sidelined.
During his pre-match press conference, Thomas Frank said there is “a good chance” Brentford defender Sepp van den Berg will be back today after three matches out with a knee injury. Michael Kayode, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry are all back in full training but are unlikely to be fit enough to feature, while Josh Dasilva, Igor Thiago, Fabio Carvalho and Gustavo Nunes are all out.
Without a win in three Premier League games following defeats at the hands of Wolves and Brighton followed by last Sunday’s draw against Tottenham Hotspur, Bournemouth welcome a Brentford side seeking a club record fifth consecutive top flight win on the road to the Vitality Stadium.
Despite their poor recent results, Bournemouth haven’t actually played that badly and actually monstered Spurs last Sunday, only to gift them a point courtesy of an act of unnecessary largesse on the part of their goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Qualification for next season’s Champions League remains a very real possibility for Andoni Iraola’s side but this evening they host a Brentford side with European aspirations of their own. Kick-off at the Vitality Stadium is at 5.30pm (GMT) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
