AFCB Vital Match Zone

Will Bournemouth bounce back against Arsenal?

|

Written by billythekid

After being beaten by the Champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium last Saturday, our team return to Dean Court on Saturday to play Arsenal in a game to be shown live on Sky, because of this the kickoff is at 5.30 pm. AFCB will be looking to bounce back, but it will be another tough game against the side who started off the season with two wins and apart from our last opponents are the only sides to have taken six points in two games played. But on home soil and with a home crowd behind them the Cherries have the memory of their last opening game of the season at Dean Court ending in a 2-0 win against Aston Villa and they have beaten Arsenal at Dean Court before by 2-1 in the Premier League in the 2017-18 season.

The Arsenal manager is Mikel Arteta a former Arsenal player, he joined Arsenal in December 2019 after leaving Manchester City where he was assistant to Pep Guardiola and his first game in charge was at Dean Court on Boxing Day. At the end of that season the Gunners finished in 8th position, the 2020-21 season in 8th place again and last season they finished in 5th place.

Arsenal so far in this transfer window have signed two players from Manchester City, Gabriel Jesus for £45 million and Oleksandr Zinchenko for £32 million. Other signings have been Marquinhos from Sao Paulo for an undisclosed fee, Fabio Viera from Porto for £34 million and Matt Turner from New England Revolution for an undisclosed fee.

The Gunners have had a good start to the season winning both games. In the first game away against Crystal Palace, they won 0-2 with goals from Martinelli and an own goal from Guehi. In their first home game, they beat Leicester City 4-2 with goals from Jesus 2, Xhaka and Martinelli.

The last time we played Arsenal at Dean Court was Boxing Day 2019 (mentioned above), the game finished honours even at 1-1, with both taking a point. The Cherries took the lead in the first half from Dan Gosling and Arsenal’s equaliser came in the second half from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

In our home Premier League games against Arsenal, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 2.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 9.

AFCB v Arsenal

AFCB Win

AFCB Win

Draw

Draw

Arsenal

AFCB Team News
Ryan Fredericks and Joe Rothwell have been out since they signed, last weekend two more players were missing, Dominic Solanke with an ankle injury and Jordan Zemura with covid. Solanke could still be a doubt for Saturday, but maybe Zemura could be back. As per usual until the team sheets are announced an hour before kick-off we probably won’t know.

AFCB Player To Watch
We might see Marcos Senesi make his first start after coming as a substitute at Manchester City. Kieffer Moore scored in his last three home games including his first goal in the Premier League against Aston Villa.

Arsenal Team News
Reiss Nelson has been out injured and another doubt is Fabio Viera.

Arsenal Player To Watch
Gabriel Jesus their big signing from Manchester City. In his last game against Leicester City he scored two goals and assisted two in the game they won 4-2. Two younger players to watch their 21-year-old Brazilian, Gabriel Martinelli, he scored in each of his last two games and Bukayo Saka the 20-year-old who was their leading scorer in the league last season with 11 goals and top with 7 assists. First time to see Aaron Ramsdale our old goalkeeper against us.

The Man In Charge
Craig Pawson is the referee for this game, his last game in charge of AFCB was at Dean Court when Saints were the visitors in July 2020, our last home game after five seasons in the Premier League.
MOM was Aaron Ramsdale.

Your say…

Matt Stevenson wrote…

Zemura was at the Open training day. I assume he is over Covid, I really hope so as he fist-bumped my son! Fredericks was training too so should be in contention for selection. – Join the conversation, click here.

Share this article

DJ

Up The Cherries!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *