Warriors and Bournemouth FC defender Jordan Zemura has made his English Premier League (EPL) debut after being included in Bournemouth’s squad for their opening league match of the 2022/23 season.
Zemura who was with the Warriors at the most recent Africa Cup of Nations was named in the first XI against Marvelous Nakamba‘s Aston Villa. Nakamba was not part of Villa’s team, he was not even on the bench.
Zemura follows in the footsteps of the likes of Peter Ndlovu (Coventry City), Bruce Grobbelaar (Liverpool), Benjani Mwaruwari (Manchester City) and Nakamba, the only Zimbabwean players to play in the EPL.
Bournemouth won the match 2 – 0, thanks to goals from Jefferson Lerma 2′ and Kieffer Moore 80′.
Bournemouth’s first ever Premier League game in August 2015 was a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa – they’ve won all three of their league meetings with the Villans since then, each by a 2-1 scoreline.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa won just once on the five previous occasions they’ve kicked off a Premier League campaign against a promoted side (D1 L3), though that victory did come at Bournemouth in 2015-16.
Gerrard started two of his new signings, with Carlos and Kamara in the first XI, alongside Coutinho who made his loan signing a permanent deal in the summer from Barcelona. Ings was ahead of Watkins who started on the bench.