AFCB Vital Match Zone

Will Bournemouth Take First Point At Arsenal?

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Written by billythekid

Our home fans saw our side break the club record for most Premier League points in a season with a very good team performance in a 3-0 comfortable win against Brighton at Dean Court on Sunday. There are now three games of this season to go, all against London clubs. The first of these is a very tough test against league leaders Arsenal at their place on Sunday at 12.30 pm, it’s being shown live on TNT Sports. The last time we met Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium was March of last season and they were also league leaders at the time (more further down review).

Arsenal v AFC Bournemouth

Arsenal Win

Arsenal Win

Draw

Draw

AFCB Win

AFCB Win

Mikel Arteta’s side have three games to go and as last season are battling Manchester City for the league title. Last season Arsenal finished in second place five points behind Manchester City. City are only one point behind behind the Gunners, with a game in hand. This game will be a real test for our side against an Arsenal side who have only lost two home games this season. The Cherries have never taken a point away from the Emirates.

Since our home game against Arsenal at Dean Court back in September, the Gunners on their own patch have beaten Manchester City 1-0 (they have taken four points against City in the two games). Sheffield United 5-0, Burnley 3-1, Wolves 2-1, Brighton 2-0. Then in an eight-game winning run they beat Crystal Palace 5-0, Liverpool 3-1, Newcastle United 4-1 and Brentford 2-1. They then had a further two wins, Luton Town 2-0 and Chelsea 5-0. So far they have not drawn a game at the Emirates. Only two defeats, both by 0-2, first West Ham and then Aston Villa who are the only team to do the double against them this season. Away from home, they have W 9, D 3, L 3.

We last met Arsenal on their ground back in March, the Cherries took the lead in the first minute with Philip Billing scoring the second-fastest goal in Premier League history and the only goal of the first half. AFCB then made it 0-2 with Marcus Senesi scoring a headed goal twelve minutes into the second half. Any thoughts of first away point/s against Arsenal were dashed when five minutes later Thomas Partey scored and eight minutes later Ben White equalised. Then in seven minutes of injury time, Reiss Nelson scored the winner.

In all our Premier League games away against Arsenal, AFCB have W 0, D 0, L 6.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 12.

Arsenal Team News
They have only one player on the injury list and that is defender Jurrien Timber, but he could be in the squad on Saturday.

Arsenal Player To Watch
There are a number to choose from. But after having a slow start after signing for Arsenal, Kai Havertz scored his first goal against us at Dean Court and in his last eleven league games he has scored 8 goals. In total his tally for the season is 12 goals with 6 assists. In his last two games against London rivals Chelsea (his old club) and Spurs, he scored 3 goals (a brace against Chelsea) and a goal and assist against Spurs. Then there is Bukayo Saka leading scorer with 15 goals and leads with 9 assists. Martin Odegaard their captain a real threat in centre of midfield, chipped in with 8 goals and 8 assists and Declan Rice at set pieces.

AFCB Team News
We seem to have lost another winger out for the season when Antoine Semenyo was injured late in our game against Brighton. Hopefully, Illia Zabarnyi will have recovered from illness. Milos Kerkez serves his second-match suspension.

AFCB Player To Watch
Dominic Solanke needs one more goal to beat our club record for the most away goals scored by a Cherries player in a Premier League season. It will beat the joint holders, Josh King who scored nine away in the 2016-17 season and Callum Wilson who did it in the 2018-19 season. So Solanke has two chances, this game against Arsenal and our last away game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Referee
David Coote is the referee, we have had him three times this season. At home against Chelsea and away at Everton and Burnley.

Matt Stevenson added

I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Arsenal. These were two home games (Aston Villa and Chelsea) and away at Wolves and Spurs. Arsenal gained 9 points, which appears fair, although the game that was lost was against Villa rather than to Spurs. Arsenal have scored 10 goals and conceded 4 with xG estimating 7.27 goals with 5.21 conceded.

Goals xG.png

Arsenal have had 5 scorers, Havertz has 3, Trossard and White 2 each. Rice leads the way with 3 assists, with Odegaard and Saka having 2 each

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Arsenal play aggressively with plenty of men forward with 8 players having an average position in the opposition half against Chelsea and 7 at Wolves.

Av pos.png

The following graph compares summary stats of Arsenal and AFCB over the last 4 games. On the underlying stats Arsenal are ahead, it is fairly even, which is surprising, with both xG and XGc being within 0.2 of each other.

Comparison.png

Arsenal have had more percentage possession but this is surprisingly below 50%. Both teams have a relatively high percentage of chances from open play, although Arsenal are strong at set pieces, with the greatest number of goals in the league. However, Arsenal concede about 2 in 5 chances from deadball situations.

Percentages.png
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