Cherries seek European tonic at 'Bournemouth Stadium'

[Getty Images] As Bournemouth's wait for a Premier League win goes on, the relentless nature of the season leaves little time to dwell on Saturday's nightmare 5-1 defeat at Chelsea, when the Cherries conceded twice in the first three minutes of the first half, and again in the opening minute of the second half. Depending on your pre-existing opinions regarding the "expected goals" metric, the fact that Chelsea only had an xG of 1.08 compared to Bournemouth's 1.46 will either confirm your view of xG's irrelevance, or perhaps point to how Chelsea's clinical finishing made the difference, with only six shots on target but five goals scored. However, Bournemouth's focus must now be on Thursday's Europa League game with Sturm Graz, which promises to be a historic night at Vitality Stadium - which, because of Uefa's long-standing ban on stadium sponsor names, will officially be "Bournemouth Stadium" for the evening, even if many of the home fans will still just call it Dean Court. Not only is it Bournemouth's first home European game, there is the potential for the highest home attendance since the stadium was reconfigured in 2001 (with the pitch turned through 90 degrees), with the filled-in north-west and south-east corner sections now complete and available for use. Sturm were runners-up in last season's Austrian Bundesliga, dropping out of this season's Champions League after the third qualifying round. They will be looking to improve on last season's Europa League record, where they lost five of their eight league phase games and finished 26th, failing to qualify for the knockout stages. On the same night, Sunderland travel to Portuguese side Torreense, before the Black Cats visit Bournemouth on Sunday. It feels like a big week for Bournemouth. Two home wins would very much restore the feelgood factor, no wins would only increase the sense that 2026-27 could be a long and difficult season. Explore Bournemouth content on BBC Sounds