Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Marcus Tavernier believes Bournemouth can take plenty of positives from their defeat to Manchester City into their Premier League matchup against Everton on Saturday.
The Cherries began their first league campaign under Marco Rose with a 2-1 defeat at Etihad Stadium, despite leading as late as the 83rd minute.
Tavernier gave Bournemouth the lead, but Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol intervened to clinch all three points for City.
The Cherries saw their 18-match unbeaten run come to an end, but Tavernier still feels optimistic ahead of their home clash against Everton.
“I felt we could’ve done more, but the goal was a perfect example of what we want to achieve,” Tavernier told the club website.
“To come out against a quality side and go high with our press, we can take positives for sure.
“We always want to improve, though, and to come away with no points is very disappointing.
“That shows the intention of this squad of players and how passionate we are about what we want to achieve.”
Despite the result, our first goal of the season was a brilliant move pic.twitter.com/rO93bFQ10b
— AFC Bournemouth (@afcbournemouth) August 23, 2026
Everton, meanwhile, started their league campaign with a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace, following that up with a 4-0 thrashing of Preston North End in the EFL Cup.
Nineteen-year-old Harrison Armstrong recorded an assist against Palace – his first goal involvement in the Premier League in what was his 17th appearance in the competition (seventh start).
The midfielder is relishing his new role in David Moyes’ team alongside summer signing Hayden Hackney.
“For someone my age to be playing 90 minutes in the Premier League – it’s a massive opportunity for me to learn, so I’m just hoping I can do that as much as possible this season,” said Armstrong.
“The manager asked me to play what he calls the hybrid role. He wants me to see what the game needs – he’s given me license to push on at times, but also understand when I need to be deeper, alongside Hayden, maybe helping with the build-up.
“I think it’s more of a free role. He wants me to express myself.”
Bournemouth’s Djordje Petrovic and Everton’s Jordan Pickford are two of just four goalkeepers that have featured in every Premier League game since the start of last season, alongside Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen and Fulham’s Bernd Leno.
Petrovic, however, now faces strong competition for his starting spot after the arrival of Michele Di Gregorio.
Since the start of last season, no Everton player has scored more Premier League goals than Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (nine), with the midfielder netting 4.7 goals more than expected during this period (4.3 xG).
Only Antoine Semenyo (+5.7) has exceeded his xG total by a higher figure than the Englishman since the start of 2025-26 in the competition.
MATCH PREDICTION – BOURNEMOUTH WIN
Bournemouth have won more Premier League games against Everton than they have versus any other opponent (nine), while only against Fulham (60% – 6/10) do they have a higher win rate among sides they’ve faced 10+ times in the division (50% – 9/18).
The Cherries have not lost their opening home game in any of the last eight league campaigns (W4 D4) since a 0-2 loss to Watford in the Premier League back in August 2017.
Everton have won just one of their nine Premier League away games against Bournemouth (D2 L6), though it was in this exact fixture last season (1-0 in December).
Following their 2-0 win over Palace on MD1, Everton will be looking to start a Premier League campaign with back-to-back victories for the first time since 2020-21, when the Toffees won their first four under Carlo Ancelotti.
Despite going unbeaten in their last nine home Premier League games (W3 D6), Bournemouth have won just three of their last 14 league matches at the Vitality Stadium (D9 L2).
Marco Rose is looking to become just the second manager to win his first Premier League home game in charge of the Cherries, after Scott Parker in August 2022 (2-0 v Aston Villa).
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