Bournemouth v Everton
Saturday 30 December, 15:00 GMT

Cherries to start 2018 in the bottom three

There was Boxing Day controversy at Dean Court as Bournemouth scored an injury time equaliser against West Ham that shouldn't really have counted. Saying that, they shouldn't have been behind in the first place as Asmir Begovic made two pretty shocking errors to let The Hammers back in the game in the first place.
What it means though is that Eddie Howe's side have now gone nine without a win in all competitions. They sit third from bottom in the Premier League and the manager is still unable to field anywhere near a full strength XI given the injuries to some of his key personnel.
Most of those players should be back sooner rather than later, but it will be interesting to see if club makes substantial investment during the January Transfer Window. I'm leaning towards not as that isn't really their style, but unless things turn around quickly, it could be a long second half of the season for Bournemouth.

Rooney return a boost for Toffees

Everton kept their unbeaten run going since the announcement that Sam Allardyce was going to take over at Goodison Park as they drew 0-0 at West Brom - their second goalless draw on the bounce.
It might not be the prettiest football at times but their defensive issues were giving them a real headache in the first part of the season and Allardyce has appeared to solve them already. He still needs to sign some younger, pacier defenders, but that can probably wait to the summer now.
Wayne Rooney missed those two fixtures but he should be back for this clash. He is the club's leading scorer with 10 Premier League goals to his name this year, and six of them have come from his last five appearances.

Wrong favourite in match odds

I wasn't expecting it, but it's Bournemouth who are the favourites in the Match Odds Market. They are currently trading at 2.44 with an Everton win 3.40 and the Draw at 3.30.
The away win has to be the value at those prices. I fully appreciate that the Toffees have won just once on the road this term, but I think we can forget about their results under previous management.
Since Allardyce has joined the club, they have won 3-0 at Apollon in the Europa League and taken five points from a possible nine in domestic action. They were fortunate to get a draw at Anfield, but they showed their fighting spirit that day, and they then went on to keep clean sheets at Newcastle and West Brom - winning 1-0 at the former and drawing 0-0 at the latter.
The hosts haven't won a game of any description since the middle of November and that was against an out-of-form Huddersfield side. Since then it's been four draws and five defeats, and even at home they have been beaten by Burnley and Liverpool, while being held by Southampton and West Ham.
Overall this season they have recorded just two victories from 10 attempts in front of their own fans, while 50% of their outings at Dean Court have ended in defeat.
It would be folly to turn down the opportunity to back Everton at around the 3.40 mark for this fixture, and although I don't expect them to win comfortably, they should have enough quality to take the three points.

High-scoring trend to continue

The Betfair Layers aren't expecting too many goals in this one as Under 2.5 is trading at 1.80with Over 2.5 available to back at 2.18. I was successful in going against the grain and tipping Overs in Bournemouth's last home match and I think I'm going to stick with that philosophy here.
Eddie Howe's men have seen their four most recent outings all go Over 2.5, and I have huge concerns about their defence. They conceded four to both Liverpool and Man City - which can be defended somewhat - but they looked awful at the back when letting West Ham score past them three times on Boxing Day.
The naysayers might argue that Everton under Sam Allardyce won't be able to take advantage of that, but their two 0-0 draws came without Wayne Rooney, and all signs are pointing to him being back on Saturday.
Prior to that they had three of six end with three goals or more with Allardyce at the helm, and as Opta rightly points out - The previous five Premier League meetings between these two clubs have produced 22 goals (4.4 per game) - Everton scoring 13 of those and Bournemouth netting nine.

Ref Watch

Lee Probert has the whistle for this fixture and although he likes to keep his yellow card in his pocket, he isn't afraid to brandish the red one.
In 16 matches this year he's sent four players off, but then on the other hand he's only racked up 26 bookings. He's actually failed to produce a card of any nature in half a dozen of his 16 games, so it's probably worth focusing on the Sending Off Markets as opposed to the Number of Cards.

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