Cherries on form: Everything you need to know about Bournemouth

Match previews

2 Feb 2024

Crystal Palace head to the south coast on Tuesday, 2nd April (19:45 BST), and before kick-off it’s time to get the lowdown on our latest opponents…

Factfile

Manager: Andoni Iraola
Position: 13th
Nickname: The Cherries
Ground: Vitality Stadium
Founded: 1899 (125 years ago)

What’s the story?

After a difficult start to the season which saw Bournemouth in the relegation zone in mid-November, manager Andoni Iraola's philosophy has begun to take shape.

A tremendous winter period saw them win six out of seven games including victories against Newcastle United and Manchester United, only missing out on seven in a row because of a last-minute Ollie Watkins equaliser for Aston Villa.

The new year brought about another difficult spell, but a seven-match winless run was ended with victory at Turf Moor.

Victories against the teams at the bottom of the table - Burnley, Luton Town and Everton in the last month - have moved them away from the relegation scrap and now attention turns to sealing a comfortable mid-table finish and building towards Iraola's second season in charge.

They have a difficult run-in to navigate, however, starting with the visit of Palace before facing Man Utd, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Chelsea in their last eight games.

The boss

The former Athletic Bilbao defender made more than 500 appearances to become a legend in the Basque Country, starting his managerial career in Cyprus before moving spending three years at Rayo Vallecano, earning plaudits for his style of football. He replaced Gary O’Neil at Bournemouth last summer.

Record against Palace

The Cherries were victorious on their visit to south London in December, with Marcos Senesi and Kieffer Moore on the scoresheet.

Palace had won their previous five games against Bournemouth in the Premier League, keeping a clean sheet in four with the fifth an eight-goal thriller at Selhurst Park in May 2019.

Boot in both camps

Legendary centre-back Gary Cahill spent two years in south London having earned 61 England caps, made almost 400 Premier League appearances and won every major trophy on offer, retiring after a final year on the south coast.

Did you know?

Confusingly, despite the club operating under the name AFC Bournemouth, they are still registered as Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic Football Club – the club’s official name since 1923 when they changed from Boscombe F C.

So why AFC Bournemouth? Adopted by the club in 1971, the idea was to appear first in any list of clubs in alphabetical order – and to be fair, it has worked. Soon after their home kit switched to red and black stripes, in homage to AC Milan.

There is some dispute over how Bournemouth came by their ‘Cherries’ nickname. Two explanations have gained traction, the first emanating – obviously – from the cherry red colour of their home strip, before the introduction of black stripes in the 1970s. The second, less standard but simultaneously less plausible explanation, is an idea that original stadium Dean Court was build next door to the Cooper-Dean estate. The estate supposedly contained row after row of cherry trees. Thus: the Cherries. Voila.

Match details

Tuesday, 2nd April
19:45 BST
Vitality Stadium
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+

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