{"id":8423,"date":"2023-09-29T08:59:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T07:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8423"},"modified":"2023-10-01T00:08:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T23:08:40","slug":"low-lying-or-otherwise-gunners-look-to-pick-some-south-coast-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8423","title":{"rendered":"Low-Lying or Otherwise, Gunners Look to Pick Some South Coast Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1416026351\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1416026351?et=2QFEnSQITx1OFbXjY1FaZg&#038;tld=com&#038;sig=WGl2Gz5LOZdkncIH3UZzTHzoj_fweVsau4_2YUyCwXI=&#038;caption=true&#038;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the seventh fixture of the young league season, on Saturday afternoon Arsenal will face Bournemouth away with an opportunity to return to winning ways after the annoying hiccup in our last league fixture.&nbsp;&nbsp;Not to forget or to focus on the negative, we remain undefeated in the league sitting only two points behind second place Liverpool.&nbsp;&nbsp;However our injury situation is a bit of a worry, and Thomas Partey is definitely out this week but Saka, Trossard and Martinelli were still to be in contention as I write this on Wednesday evening, and Arteta expected Declan Rice, who hurt his back last week, likely to be available for this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the Gunners came in to the Everton match ten days ago, they had not been firing on all cylinders but the Gunners gave a big kick-start to their season with consecutive clean sheets at Goodison and a few days later, at home to PSV Eindhoven.&nbsp;&nbsp;In addition to the Gunners\u2019 improved defensive cohesion, the intricate passing in the buildup to their five goals in those two matches was beauty itself.&nbsp;&nbsp;On the other side of the ball, neither Everton nor PSV really troubled our revamped defence featuring Gabriel and David Raya, who seems to have uprooted Aaron Ramsdale as first choice goalkeeper.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately our brief run of clean sheets came to an end last weekend when we conceded two silly goals at home against Spurs in a frustrating 2-2 draw but on Wednesday we were able to come up with another clean sheet at Brentford in the League Cup.&nbsp;&nbsp;I didn\u2019t see that game so don\u2019t know how impressive we were, but the result was important after the derby disappointment.&nbsp;&nbsp;As TTG remarked elsewhere, it is \u201cinteresting that we\u2019ve had three clean sheets away but have leaked goals at home.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;Maybe I should repeat at this point that we will be playing Bournemouth away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Not a Bowlful of \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Cherries defeated Stoke City 2-0 at home in the League Cup in midweek and lost 3-1 at Brighton last weekend.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bournemouth are winless in six league games, and occupy the 17th spot in the league table ahead only of the three newly promoted sides having scored five goals but conceded eleven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since June of this year the Cherries\u2019 new manager is Andoni Iraola, who managed Rayo Vallecano to mid-table finishes in La Liga in the last two seasons after leading them to promotion in 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bournemouth escaped relegation in the Spring under manager Gary O\u2019Neil who was sacked nevertheless before taking on the reins at Wolves.&nbsp; The Cherries no doubt hope they made the best decision with Iraola, but to this point Wolves have topped them in the league table, just sayin\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last time we played the Cherries at home was in March when Bournemouth scored within ten seconds of the opening kickoff in the game that was famously redeemed by Reiss Nelson\u2019s last minute winner.&nbsp;&nbsp;In last season\u2019s away fixture at Bournemouth, played in August 2022, the Gunners won by a decisive 0-3 margin with two goals scored by \u00d8degaard, and one by Saliba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aaron Ramsdale kept a clean sheet in the League Cup but I expect the manager will turn back to David Raya for this one, seeing as he is Arteta\u2019s shiny new something or other, and he started the three prior games.&nbsp;&nbsp;With Saka an injury doubt and Nelson coming off his game winner at Brentford in the League Cup, there\u2019s a possibility we could see the young Nelson in his friend\u2019s spot on the right side.&nbsp; Considering the injury report and the manager\u2019s team selection in midweek, I think we could see this team starting at Brentford:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">White&nbsp;&nbsp;Saliba&nbsp;&nbsp;Gabriel&nbsp;&nbsp;Zinchenko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">\u00d8degaard&nbsp;&nbsp;Rice&nbsp;&nbsp;Havertz<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Nelson&nbsp;&nbsp;Jes\u00fas&nbsp;&nbsp;Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Holic Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though they are at home, it shouldn\u2019t be surprising if Bournemouth set themselves up to frustrate their visitors.&nbsp;&nbsp;In any case, it could be difficult for the Gunners to break down the Cherries\u2019 defence, but I am hoping to see Gabriel Martinelli make his return in a late cameo and if so I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see him come up with the winning goal in a jolly old 1-0 to the Arsenal.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jolly in retrospect at least, after some considerable nervous tension is released.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hoping I\u2019m wrong of course, and a few early goals come our way.&nbsp;&nbsp;It wouldn\u2019t hurt in that regard if Saka also is able to contribute, of course.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the game, \u2018holics, and here\u2019s hoping for a bountiful return from the South Coast as well as a continued upward trajectory for the good guys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images In the seventh fixture of the young league season, on Saturday afternoon Arsenal will face Bournemouth away with an opportunity to return to winning ways after the annoying hiccup in our last league fixture.&nbsp;&nbsp;Not to forget or to focus on the negative, we remain undefeated in the league sitting only two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8423"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8427,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423\/revisions\/8427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}