Written by billythekid
Fourth Home Game Against A London Club
After our League Cup 2-0 win on Wednesday night against Stoke City, with two goals in the second half coming from Dominic Solanke and Joe Rothwell, the Cherries will be at home in the fourth round against Liverpool. AFCB are at home at Dean Court again on Saturday in the Premier League where our visitors are 5th placed Arsenal. The game is at the normal time of 3 pm and is another tough game for our club.
This Saturday will be AFCB’s seventh game in the Premier League this season and the fifth time we play against a London club. At Dean Court, our first three games have been against West Ham, Spurs and Chelsea. Last season we lost against all three at home. So far this season we have taken a point against both West Ham and Chelsea, losing against Spurs, so an improvement from last season. Away from home last season we lost at Liverpool, Brentford and Brighton, this season we improved on that by getting a point at Brentford.
The Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola both come from the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country in Northern Spain. They both played together in their youth at Antiguoko, an amateur youth club. One other manager and also a former manager in the Premier League also came from the same province, former Arsenal manager Unai Emery who is now manager at Aston Villa and former Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui who left in August and was replaced by Gary O’Neil.
Arteta in his time at Arsenal has improved their league table position in every full season so far. When he took over in December 2019, Arsenal were sitting in 11th place in the table after 18 games with 23 points. At the end of the season, they moved up to 8th spot with 56 points. In the 2020-21 season Arsenal finished 8th with 61 points. In 2021-22 they were 5th with 69 points and last season finished 2nd with 84 points.
So far this season in their two away games, Arsenal have beaten Crystal Palace and Everton 0-1. At home, they have beaten Nottingham Forest 2-1 and Manchester United 3-1. Drew 2-2 with Fulham and in their most recent North London derby with Spurs, the result was also 2-2.
The last visit to Dean Court by Arsenal was our second game at home and third of the season, Arsenal won 0-3, their goals coming from a brace in the first 11 minutes from Martin Odegaard and in the second half, William Saliba added a third.
In all our home games against Arsenal, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 3.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 11.
AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal
AFCB Win
Draw
Arsenal Win
AFCB Team News
Lloyd Kelly and Chris Mepham will probably miss this game. Dominic Solanke subbed against Stoke City after injury, hopefully just as a precaution and will be available for Saturday.
AFCB Player To Watch
With a fresh pair of legs and our team playing three games this week, we might see Luis Sinisterra get a start against Arsenal, he has only played 16 minutes so far when he came on against Chelsea. Dominic Solanke has had his best start to a season in the top league, scoring 3 goals in his 6 league games, two were opportunist goals after the ball came off the opposition player and he finished those two opportunities well. Plus he scored a good goal away at Brentford and his confidence must be high.
Arsenal Team News
On the injury front, Declan Rice, back, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, hamstring, Thomas Partey, groin and Jurrien Timber, knee. There is also a doubt on Bukayo Saka being fit in time.
Arsenal Player To Watch
A few to choose from. Bukayo Saka (if he plays), a real threat out on the wing, leading scorer with 3 goals this season and has 2 assists. Last season scored 14 goals and had 11 assists. The other player is their 24-year-old captain, Martin Odegaard, scored 2 goals this season so far. Last season was their joint-leading scorer from midfield with 15 goals (two at D C) and had 7 assists.
The Referee
Michael Salisbury is in charge of this game. Last season he took our home game against Leicester City and the away games at Manchester United, Wolves, and Crystal Palace. Also was in charge of our League Cup game at Norwich.
Matt Stevenson added…
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Arsenal. They were home to Fulham, Man U, and Spurs, and away at Everton. They picked up 8 points from these games, remaining unbeaten, but this may have been a slight underachievement as based on xG, the Fulham game would normally have been comfortably won. Arsenal have scored 8 goals and conceded 5, whereas xG predicted 8.52 and 3.30 suggesting Arsenal’s defence has been underperforming or unlucky.
The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. It is clear that Arsenal play very high up the pitch, with Martinelli (the left winger) playing as high as I’ve seen an average position versus Man U. Only having one away game means it is harder to judge the forthcoming game but even at Everton all but 3 players had an average position in the opponent’s half.
The following graph compares summary stats of Arsenal and AFCB over the last 4 games. Arsenal are ahead in all the key statistics as would be expected.
Arsenal have had the bulk of possession in their games whereas AFCB have had the minority. I was surprised to see that only 63% of Arsenal’s chances come for open play, compared with 83% for AFCB. Arsenal have also conceded a lower percentage of chances from set plays that AFCB.
Neil Dawson wrote…
Semenyo looked so much better on the wing against Stoke but was anonymous again at centre forward. I don’t think he would go with Moore because of the press but we might be able to use him for this one game and play to his strengths. Although I think the fact he doesn’t even put him on the bench doesn’t augur well! – To join the conversation, click here.
