Written by billythekid
Tough Game Against Arsenal Who Are Unbeaten
Our last game before the international break away against Leicester City ended 1-0. Now after the international break, our side are back in action again, this time at home against Arsenal on Saturday at 5.30 pm. This will be our fourth home game and as with the others will be live on Sky.
AFC Bournemouth v ArsenalDrawAFCB WinArsenal Win |
Mikel Arteta’s first game in charge of Arsenal was at Dean Court on Boxing Day in 2019, Eddie Howe was our manager at the time and the two sides finished honours even in a 1-1 draw. Since then in the Cherries’ two encounters against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal at Dean Court, our side lost 0-4 last season with Andoni Iraola in his first season as our manager and the previous season 0-3 when Scott Parker was our manager. This season Iraola will be hoping to see his side get a better result against his friend Arteta.
Arsenal who have finished runners-up to Manchester City in the last two seasons, have so far this season remained unbeaten home and away. Their away form has resulted in two wins, 0-2 against Aston Villa and 0-1 against North London rivals Spurs. The one draw was against Manchester City which finished 2-2. Arsenal at home have had three wins, beating Wolves in their opening game 2-0, Leicester City 4-2 and Southampton 3-1. They drew 1-1 with Brighton.
The last time our two sides (mentioned earlier), we were beaten comfortably by Arsenal, two of their four goals came from the penalty spot. Bukayo opened the scoring in the first half and then Martin Odegaard made it 0-2 from the penalty spot. In the second half, Kai Havertz made it 0-3, again via a penalty and Ben White scored the fourth in injury time.
In all our home games against Arsenal, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 4. All competitions, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 13.
AFCB Team News
No new injury concerns were reported during the international break, so just Tyler Adams out.
AFCB Player To Watch
Milos Kerkez up against Bukayo Saka and Illia Zabarnyi and Marcos Senesi keeping a check on Kai Havertz and whoever partners him up front will be interesting battles. Havertz is yet to score away from home this season, his first goal for Arsenal was at Dean Court last season.
Arsenal Team News
On the injury front they have been without their influential captain Martin Odegaard, Kieran Tierney, Ben White, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kai Havertz have all had injury concerns going into the international break, but are expected to be available for the game at Dean Court. Latest injury is to Bukayo Saka playing for England, but he is expected to be fit for Saturday. Neto will not be available against his parent club.
Arsenal Player To Watch
They have a number of players who can cause problems. Form players at the moment Bukayo Saka, 7 league games and 7 assists and 2 goals, a goal and two assists against Saints. The other is Kai Havertz with 4 goals and scored twice “in his last two games.
The Referee
Rob Jones is in charge of this game, we had him away against Nottingham Forest last season.
Your say…
Ska_Man said…
Definitely take a draw, but they have to lose that unbeaten record somewhere. Unless they’re planning to emulate the ‘ Invincibles’ – To join the conversation, click here.