At the Emirates on Saturday lunchtime, Arsenal have a golden opportunity to improve their recent record against South Coast opposition when Bournemouth pay a visit in the Gunners’ first Premier League game after a hiatus of nearly a month (which featured a two-week international break bracketed by disappointing Carabao and FA Cup defeats to Manchester City and Southampton, respectively). After the Gunners’ satisfying Champions League midweek jaunt to the Portuguese capital brought them their first victory during that month, they will be in a brighter mood which should be a boost as the pointed end of the season gets still pointier.
Mikel Arteta said yesterday, quite rightly of course, that Arsenal and their fans have a big day in front of them on Saturday, and conjured some food-related imagery in his pre-match remarks to the media: “The closer we get, the relevance and importance of the match increases obviously, and tomorrow is a big day for us. The players know it, our supporters know it. It’s an early kick-off, so get up early, have an early breakfast, bring your lunch, bring your dinner, and let’s go all together for it.”
As Bournemouth showed in their 3-2 loss to the Gunners on the South Coast in January, in which our opponents scored the first and last goals of the game, if you are brave enough to put Arsenal under pressure, they can be vulnerable. Cherries’ head coach Andoni Iraola was at St. Mary’s last weekend to scout their hosts, and may have spotted a vulnerability or two that his team will try to exploit. Manchester City attacked Arsenal at Wembley three weeks ago and provoked defensive errors to emerge victorious by 2-0. Last Saturday, it was Southampton’s turn and, on Tuesday Sporting may have missed an opportunity to attack Arsenal as often as they should have in the Champions League quarter-final first leg in Lisbon.
Southampton were seen by some as a relatively easy route to the semi-finals for the Gunners, but proved to be a very difficult opponent and we should expect to see more of the same from Bournemouth. Last May in this fixture the Cherries inflicted one of the more disappointing defeats of the Gunners’ season when they scored the last two goals of the game and came away with a 2-1 win.
The Opposition
Arsenal will have to be defensively strong and savvy, especially on Bournemouth’s set pieces considering that our opponents have scored on us that way two years running. Arteta commented: “We need to learn that lesson… We conceded a set-piece goal the year before as well. So it’s an area where they are really strong, and we certainly have to improve to create the margin and the game context that we want.”
Bournemouth no longer have two of the Premier League’s more formidable goal scoring threats after Solanke left for Tottenham (where he promptly stopped scoring), and Semenyo left in January for Manchester City (where he promptly didn’t). But the 13th-placed Cherries still have Evanilson who scored the winning goal in this fixture last season, and they have scored 46 goals with a respectable goal difference of -2. In their most recent seven Premier League matches, Bournemouth have drawn six of them and defeated Everton in the other one. If the Cherries’ form holds it would be far from a good thing for Arsenal who need by all means to win this game, NOT (Please, God!) draw it.
Arsenal Team News
Mikel Arteta announced in his Friday presser that Eberechi Eze, who last played in the 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen nearly a month ago, will be available for this match. If he plays it will be his first game since returning from injury so he is most likely to begin on the bench. The boss said: “(Eze’s) recovery, the will that he’s shown from day one to get back as quick as possible, how he’s pushed the medical staff and himself to be there tomorrow, it’s just great to watch.”
Arteta also hinted that there could be more than one returnee from our contingent of walking wounded, a list that has recently included Saka, Eze, Hincapié, and Timber, and reading between the lines here, specifically seemed to suggest that Hincapié could be available.
Given those hints from the honorable jefe, and the team that brought home the Champions League goods in midweek, the Gunners may field a team like this one:
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Calafiori
Ødegaard Zubimendi Rice
Madueke Gyökeres Martinelli
We should be pleasantly surprised if Timber, Hincapié or Eze are deemed fit enough to start the match but I have a feeling we might see the faces of all three at some point.
The ‘Holics Pound
Seeing as one of my hunches suddently occurred as I was finishing this preview, you should seriously consider going out and putting your hard-earned on 2-0 to the Arsenal with Zubimendi and Gyökeres providing the winning goals. Those recent bouts of defensive frailty will be completely healed, if all goes according to plan. It sounds perfectly straightforward but unfortunately may not prove to be quite so simple. You can thank me later (or not) for letting you know everything will turn out the way we wanted in the end. Never mind the result, just enjoy the watch, ‘holics, but if we do win I promiose we will be that much closer to our goal so there’s plenty on this game.
Come on Arsenal!
I will thank you now bt8 😀
Score looks about right to me
and no idea on the team.
Just win
I think that when MA was asked about
Saka, Ode, Hincapié and Timber being
out he said “there are changes, I don’t
who”. I smiled when I read that – the
likelihood of Mikel not knowing exactly
the situation seems vanishingly small to
me 😂
Be nice if a fully firing Saka was back
Nice preview bt8! Thank you!
Hopefully the performance and more so the result away at Lisbon have injected the necessary confidence boost to steady the squad after the wobbles in the domestic cup.
The Norwegian international coach seems to have indicated that his compatriot in Arsenal squad may have suffered a minor niggle which will keep him out for this weekend. Eze seems to be back. One suspects Saka is not too far off. And/or Timber.
Mikel’s cryptic nods and smiles make guessing the starting eleven all the more challenging, so here is my best guess:
Raya
Mosquera-Saliba-Gabriel-Calafiori
Havertz-Zubimendi-Rice
Madueke-Gyökeres-Martinelli
Eze and Max to make their quality matter as “finishers” in the last 20 odd minutes. A tightly controlled, imposing 2-0 would be my preference, as always, but I suspect something less predictable is in store for us and I will take a 3-1.
Come on Arsenal!
Excellent preview, bt8.
I think Odegaard is out for today’s game. I’d expect Eze to start. One in, one out…such is our want.
Dr. F, can’t see Mosquera ahead of White, but, in the final analysis, I can’t be arsed about the line-up.
“And You can pair-up if you like. And you can fookin’ pick someone else to walk in, and you can bring your fookin’ dinner…”
I’d say that’s where I’m at, too. Let’s be havin’ ya.
MCMBD
Fine preview Bt8. It’s hard to concentrate on detail and context with the tension but you have done very well.
I hope and believe we can win and psychologically it would pile more pressure on C130y who play at the Bus Stop tomorrow in what should be a tough game. Iraiola is a fine coach and I believe will be an elite one eventually but let’s not let him improve his CV at our expense . It so happened that in Southampton we found about the most in-form team around as the Wrexham game showed .
I expect Hincapie back but someone told me Calafiori may be out . It’s a just win whatever the team
Nice work, bt8.
Hard to call this one, given the long layoff Bournemouth have had and our somewhat less than sparkling recent displays. Ultimately, we have 7 games to go now and time for handbrakes and horseshoes is over. We have to go all out from minute 1 to win this game, at the same time sending a message to the not-at-all-financially-doped competition that anything they can do, we can match.
Give ‘em hell, Boys.
Thanks for an incisive preview, bt8. It’s a must win. Nothing else matters. All hands to the pumps!
Thanks bt8
I’m with Bath – it’s a must win game, as is every game now to the end, nothing else can be envisaged to suffice.
I don’t care who starts – anyone and everyone must give their all now.
Fast start, early goal, 2-0 will do.
UTA.
Thanks bt8 – just win. Please !
I’ll be there courtesy of Bath and shouting for both of us. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Thanks for another excellent preview, bt8. As others have said, it’s a must-win. And rhat’s all there is to say.
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly
Rice, Zubimendi, Havertz
Martinelli, Madueke
Gyokeres
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, Hincapie, Jesus, Eze, Norgaard, Trossard, Dowman, Salmon
Eze and Hincapié the ones back
Big day for MLS, best of luck to him
COYGs!
Well. That was an early disaster.
Unlucky on the goal but we have been very timid
so far.
It would be good if we could get our act together.
That’ll do for starters.
Yeah, nice penalty
Eze and Leo to come on, hope they can spark something
Max too, MA going for it
Really poor.
Fuck that was painful.
What can be said about that in all honesty?
All very mot good.
I plead guilty to misplaced optimism on the day, but haven’t given up hope for our season as I suspect the players and coaches haven’t either. I hope that’s not suspecting too much but it does seem like we are due some injury recoveries and return to form and confidence.
I haven’t given hope yet either, and we may see some timely injury recoveries. However what us clearly evident is we have a lot of tired and out of form players. I can’t comment on confidence as I presume if you’re a professional footballer, confidence should be a given. One thing is for sure Arteta needs to earn his corn in the coming weeks or it’ll be another disappointing end to the season.
We’re missing four who would be in most people’s starting XI, including the two most creative in Ødegaard and Saka. It is asking a lot of Rice to single-handedly drag us across the line.
>>>>>>>