Aston Villa clash to come ‘too soon’ for two Bournemouth players – Scott Parker
Newly-promoted AFC Bournemouth will be without two of their new signings for the visit of Aston Villa on Saturday, Scott Parker has confirmed.
The Cherries have only made three purchases over the summer with two coming in on free transfer and Marcus Tavernier being bought for £10million from Middlesbrough.
He is the only one available as Parker admitted in his pre-match press conference that both Ryan Fredericks and Joe Rothwell would miss the Premier League curtain raiser at the Vitality Stadium.
“The latest on Ryan is that he’s on the grass,” he said. “He picked up a calf injury when we were in Portugal and the weekend will be too soon for him, unfortunately.
“Joe will probably be slightly longer than Ryan in terms of where he is. Ryan is moving slowly, progressing in the right way and hopefully we can get him in and around the squad over the coming weeks.”
Easy win
Bournemouth made number of big moves in January to get themselves back to the Premier League but they now look most likely to go back down and Aston Villa have to capitalise on that.
Not only are Rothwell and Fredericks out of action, but Todd Cantwell and Nat Phillips, who performed so well for them last season, have both returned to their parent clubs and not returned to the South Coast.
Parker’s squad is certainly weaker than it was in the second tier and that should leave the door wide open for Steven Gerrard’s side to get off to the perfect start with a big win.
It won’t be as easy as turning up and wandering out at half pace because no game in the top flight ever is but as long as the usual standards that the manager demands of his players is met, then there will be little Bournemouth can do to stop Villa surging past and maybe sitting at the top of the table come the end of gameweek one.
In other Aston Villa news, this is how the Villans can expose the Cherries come Saturday afternoon but there is one thing they need to keep an eye out for.