Bournemouth v Arsenal: the team, the statistics, the styles of play, the home v away.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

I thought Iwobi was very effective playing roughly in Ozil’s position (although he did seem to pop up in various places where I didn’t expect to see him – but all to the good).   But he reported that he liked the position, saying, “It is where I have grown up playing, and where I enjoy playing the most.  But wherever I am put on the pitch, I will do my best. It’s more intense [in the centre], more thinking to it but it’s always hard to play in any position. There are a lot of players who can play number 10; a lot of ball players in the team. Every day in training I am always learning and trying to add it to my game.

“This time last year I was just playing in the cup games and happy to be there. To be starting almost every week is just amazing progress for me. I’m still young, still learning and there is still a long way to go. We have got the momentum, we are confident now and hopefully we can keep up our winning streak.”

So that’s one more player fixed in the squad – be ready in the summer for the transfer rumours of him being poached by Barcelona.

Meanwhile here’s the latest on the injury list, and this time I’ve added a few extra bits and pieces, such as players who were injured but are now just getting fit again.  Dates in such cases are of course something of a guess, and normally we have to wait for the player to get a game in the under 23s before knowing he is fully back in working order.

Player What’s wrong Return date Notes
Mesut Ozil Illness January 3, 2017 A Doubt
Kieran Gibbs Knee Injury January 3, 2017 Slight Doubt
Theo Walcott Calf Strain January 3, 2017 Slight Doubt
Chuba Akpom January 7, 2017 Match fitness
Danny Welbeck January 7, 2017 Match fitness
Per Mertesacker January 7, 2017 Match fitness
Mat Debuchy Hamstring Injury January 14, 2017
Mo Elneny Africa Cup of Nations February 5, 2017 Feb 5 is the final.
Santi Cazorla Plantaris Injury February 25, 2017

As for Bournemouth they just have two injuries Marc Pugh and Lewis Cook.  I believe Max Gradel has gone to play for the Ivory Coast, and of course Jack Wilshere is unable to play.

Bournemouth’s forward line is a matter of interest…  The figures here come from Whoscored.com and show the shots, dispossessed and poor control figures per game.

Player Games Goals Assists Shots Dispossessed Poor control
Callum Wilson 14(2) 5 – 1.7 2.1 2.6
Joshua King 14(4) 3 1 1.2 2.4 2.6
Junior Stanislas 10(1) 3 4 2.1 0.5 1.4
Nathan Aké 7(2) 3 – 0.7 0.2 0.3
Benik Afobe 3(12) 2 1 1.1 0.7 0.6

Benik Afobe is a strange case here.  He chose to play for the Democratic Republic of Congo rather than England, just two months ago, but then having done that, decided not to join the squad of his newly adopted football nation, and instead chose to stay with Bournemouth.

Afobe told the Bournemouth FC official website that he wanted to fight for his place in Bournemouth’s starting line-up after scoring against Swansea City in a 3-0 away win.  So that could have him playing at centre forward against his old team, with Stanislas, King and Fraser behind, but of course I am hardly an expert on things Bournemouthian.

Mind you, I generally get the Arsenal team wrong, as Blacksheep loves to point out one hour before kick off as we have our regular spot of lunch in the pub (except for the last match when the Swimmer was shut.  An outrage!)

Anyway, just to give Blacksheep a laugh try this

Giroud

Alexis Iwobi The Ox

Xhaka Coquelin

Monreal Koscielny Mustafi Bellerin

Cech

For once the notion of lurking on the beach building sandcastles, could actually happen, although it is worth remembering that contrary to their name AFC Bournemouth actually play in Boscombe.  But there is a beach.

Therein we might see: Ospina, Gabriel, Holding, Jenkinson, Ramsey, Reine-Adélaïde, plus one.   If either or both of Gibbs and Theo have recovered they could be beached, which could mean Jenkinson or Le Jeff could drop out.  Otherwise Maitland-Niles could get to play with sandcastles.
.
Bournemouth’s play very much a direct attacking game at home, without thought of counter attacking.  Here is their attack information for home matches this season…
Situation Goals per Game Overall %
Open Play 9 56%
Set Piece 5 31%
Penalty 2 13%
Counter Attack 0 0%
Own Goal 0 0%

Arsenal’s analysis for away games is …

Situation Goals per Game Overall %
Open Play 16 80%
Set Piece 3 15%
Penalty 1 5%
Counter Attack 0 0%
Own Goal 0 0%

So no interest in the counter attacking game either by Bournemouth at home or Arsenal away.   Bournemouth normally get 52% possession at home (on average of course) while Arsenal look for 55% away, so something is going to give.

Combining the two clubs’ records and taking into account home and away variance, we can expect a game that turns out like this
  • Pass success for both sides: 83%
  • Arsenal to have more shots that Bournemouth (maybe 13 to 11)
  • Arsenal also to be slightly ahead with shots on target (perhaps 5 to 4).
  • The teams will make a similar number of tackles  (17 or 18 each).
  • Arsenal will make slightly more interceptions (maybe 15 to Bournemouth’s 13).
All of this looks very even, and so the final outcome should therefore either be down to either
  • Individual moments of brilliance by players
  • Erratic or biased decision making by the referee.

Here’s the league table in home and away format.

Home
Away
Pos Team Pld W D L F A W D L F A Pts
1 Chelsea 19 9 0 1 28 6 7 1 1 14 7 49
2 Liverpool 20 7 2 0 26 7 6 3 2 22 16 44
3 Man City 20 6 3 1 19 10 7 0 3 22 12 42
4 Arsenal 19   7 2 1 21 10   5 2 2 20 9 40
9 AFC Bournemouth 19 5 1 3 16 12 2 2 6 10 19 24

Thus Bournemouth have won five at home (the same number as they won in the entire season last year), exactly as Arsenal have won away.  Arsenal have a slightly better number of points courtesy of having drawn two and lost two of the other games.  Arsenal have scored four more goals away than Bournemouth have at home.  Bournemouth and conceded three fewer, and have scored in every home league game except one.

But Bournemouth have let in two or more goals in three of their last four games by the seaside.  And the chart of their games in December shows a certain drift towards erratic performances – a fine comeback against Liverpool followed by a defeat to Burnley.   Beating Swansea, after losing to Southampton and Chelsea in consecutive games.   Here’s the list

Date Venue Opposition Half time Full time
04/12/2016 H Liverpool FC 0-2 W 4-3
10/12/2016 A Burnley FC 1-2 L 2-3
13/12/2016 H Leicester City 1-0 W 1-0
18/12/2016 H Southampton FC 1-1 L 1-3
26/12/2016 A Chelsea FC 0-1 L 0-3
31/12/2016 A Swansea City 2-0 W 3-0

However we have now lost three consecutive away league matches for the first time since August to October 2011 and two of these have been from winning positions.   But at the half way mark we have 40 points – better than five of the last six seasons.  So an up and down sort of campaign.  Time to go back to it all being up.

Let’s round it off with the goalscorers with their occasionally glorious full names as found on supersport.com

Player Team Goals
1 Diego Da Silva Costa Chelsea 14
2 Zlatan Ibrahimović Manchester United 13
3 Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez Arsenal 12
4 Jermain Defoe Sunderland 11
4 Romelu Lukaku Menama Everton 11
4 Sergio Leonel Agüero del Castillo Manchester City 11
7 Harry Kane Tottenham Hotspur 10
8 Eden Hazard Chelsea 9
8 Sadio Mané Liverpool 9
10 Bamidele Alli Tottenham Hotspur 8
10 Christian Benteke Liolo Crystal Palace 8
10 Michail Antonio West Ham United 8
10 Theo Walcott Arsenal 8

Have fun, be it in front of the TV or by the seaside.

Now available

Bournemouth – Arsenal : 3-3 crazy match, great come back

Untold Arsenal: 

Wenger ponders whether Yaya Sanogo will ever really be good enough for Arsenal. 

Bournemouth v Arsenal: the complaints, life in the old days, and who could return tonight.

Bournemouth v Arsenal 3 January 2017 – The Match Officials. Beware a return to the old ways.

Disaster hits Arsenal as the number of players leaving rises to 13, and Wenger is off too.

Ref review Everton – Arsenal : the Clattenburg-Dean combination, a lethal one

The players Arsenal need this January – compared with what other PL clubs need

Arsenal – Crystal Palace 2-0: a good win to start the new year

2016: The year many of us realised football was utterly broken but the media continued to deny reality

New from the Arsenal History Society – all the player histories indexed.  The AHS player histories tend to be more detailed than those on the official Arsenal site – especially for players from the early part of Arsenal’s history.  Now we are undertaking the huge task of indexing the main articles.  Players with surnames A to F have been linked to their main articles and we are continuing the task day by day.

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160 Replies to “Bournemouth v Arsenal: the team, the statistics, the styles of play, the home v away.”

  1. Happy New Year!
    I am always astonished about how much research you do. Keep up the good researching. I do a lot less mostly for Fantasy football or to win arguments with my brothers. I wonder why you theorise that the match will hinge on individual moments of brilliance or poor referee decision. I suspect with all your analysis of refs, this is to be expected. However, the flip side of an individual moment of brilliance is one of sheer stupidity. While unlikely to happen, probably more likely than another scorpion kick.

  2. We haven’ had a catering report in a while, so I went looking for sausages near Bournemouth.

    It seems a good description of the district is Dorset (I’ve never been there). Lots of places talk about free range chickens, is there enough empty space for that there?

    In any event, there is a butcher near Bournemouth, called Webbs Butchers. And they have award winning sausages: turkey, sage and onion, traditional pork, and a pork and balsamic onion chutney.

    If any Belgians are at the game, maybe they could take a sausage back for Walter?

  3. Speaking of Belgium….

    What’s more Belgian?? Waffle or belgian dark chocolate.

  4. @Gord,
    Thanks for that.
    Never having solved the mysteries surrounding the contents of pork sausages, I am encouraged by the discovery of turkey ones.
    Hope someone attending the B’mouth game will sample and report. 😉

  5. XI from Twit feed, beach from LiveScore

    Our team once more in text form: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Alexis, Giroud

    Ospina, Reine-Adelaid, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Gabriel, Lucas, Oxlade-Chamberlain.

    Hmmm, half a hyphenated beach.

  6. Good to see Mustafi back. Gabriel didn’t let us down, but I feel we would have done better against City & Everton had Mustafi played. Not sure how Ramsey will be deployed.

  8. Ramsey flagged offside when he was 20 yards off the ball, yet Silva wasn’t when he was a yard or two off…

  12. Interesting pen call.

    Most Arsenal regulars here at the Arsenal Tavern (not Untolders) here most confused in spite of the plundits confidence in the officials.

  16. Al
    once Ramsey moved toward the ball he was offside, its a whole different situation and indeed viewed within the laws as different to the Silva incident.

  18. Finsbury I think you’ll find if you shove someone in the back and they go flying over in the box your fucked ( or a penalty )

  19. We need one quick, confident we will, Bournemouth are still attacking so we should get some space to exploit

  20. Mike T

    Looked to me as though Ramsey changed his mind when he realised he was offside, although the linesman may have read it differently.

  21. Shoot I think you’ll find more then few the other way that haven’t been given, this season.

    I’ve only seen one angle from the broadcast: just reporting the consensus from N5 sorry that you find the opinions of AFC supporters objectionable.

    Quite a few pens against this season. More then for. A remarkable stat for a possession heavy team. So I remark upon it.

  22. Mike T
    How is it different, Silva moved towards the ball too and even swung as it to hit it!

  28. @finsbury

    Has any of penalties given against us been challenged by the referee reviewers?

    Anyway, we have been second best tonight and so far we have from the game exactly what we have deserved – nothing.

    Still, we can turn this around but we need to score the first goal as soon as possible!

    COYG!

  30. I like how the law is always means something else where Arsenal are concerned. Sane’s offside goal was called correct by ex refs and pundits because, erm, it was difficult to see in real time! Now we’re told because Ramsey made a move towards the ball, even though he stopped, that made him active and interfering with play. Nvm he was about 20 or so yards from the ball. When Silva did the same it didn’t count as an offside as he wasn’t in cech’s line of sight. Ramsey was nowhere near the ball, and certainly not blocking the goalie who was about 40 yards away, yet gets called offside. Which is it exactly??

  31. How many times opponent players will be allowed studs up tackles from behind without a red card…

  32. Josif
    As above if you check the reviews from this season I’m sure you can find the for and against both given and not given ?

    Did you as an experienced fan of sport knowing what you do about the much published 48 hour recovery window expect the Arsenal XI to match their opponents who’d had an extra day (regardless of who they are) in the opening (& closing when fatigued) spells? We both know the answer. Cheers.

  33. Move Sanchez upfront, with or without Giroud. The best player looks isolated out there. Too many chances, Defense needs tightening

  35. Al,
    He also raised both arms to say he wasn’t going for the ball! I don’t think those attempting to defend that earlier call will mention that 😉
    –
    Dirty dirty Arsenal. Always fouling eh?

  38. Al

    It shouldn’t be different but the latest interpretation is that Silva being in the area wasn’t effecting Cech, I agree he was, but it’s stated that in the area he wouldn’t be considered as doing so unless he was in Cechs line of sight. In Ramsey’s offside once he moved toward the ball it’s viewed he has effected the Bournemouth players.
    Offside used to be so easy but it’s another example of when you try to make things better you often achieve the exact opposite.

  40. Apart from that absolutely ridiculous offside call, I’m really not too sure how anyone can complain about the refereeing so far.. All you’re doing is showing your complete and utter bias by doing so and it discredits the countless amount of games when we really do get screwed over by the ref.

  41. Not playing well but at least I could see some urgency in their play after the 2nd goal. With Giroud playing up front, I would look for some play to him and have him lay it off to Ramsey or the Ox running through.

  43. The booking for Ramsey is absolute bollocks. He was fouled by Wilson twice & then gets called by Oliver. It was Wilsons leg across Ramsey that was the initial foul & again subsequently.

    The assistants flag was correct for the Ramsey offside but the referee was wrong in calling it. Ramsey might have moved toward the ball but clearly had no intention of playing it.
    Mike T – your interpretation is bollocks because Silva actually attempted to play the ball.

  44. I think I’ve seen Walter comment something to the effect “why don’t we get such penalties”.

    Actually I have just gone back into the archives and found one incident he mentions teams getting very soft penalties against which we never seem to get ourselves. Incidentally it was a penalty against… Bournemouth.
    http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/58195#comment-898740

  45. Jammy,
    Please don’t shoot your gunners prematurely,
    No one wrote that it wasn’t a penalty. Unless I missed a comment? Or can’t read?

  46. i would love to know the names of the bbc 5 radio commentators

    apparently we are looking at a third consecutive defeat maybe i didn’t see the same match against Crystal palace as him

  48. Jacob

    To be fair I don’t think the broadcasters or plundits watch the actual Football.

    There is some evidence…

  49. Thanks Al
    Fortunately there’s an archive going back years and years to refer to when looking at such stuff.

    Charts. And tables. Most useful in football (like league tables innit?).
    –
    We can move on from that thread then. And onto the second half.
    COYG.

  50. @finsbury

    Sorry but tonight it’s all about ourselves. We can look at the fixture list and swear it – I actually have a post about it in my mind right now – but that doesn’t change the fact we don’t play well tonight, we don’t defend well tonight, we don’t win the ball enough, we don’t create chances enough and, as a logical consequence, we don’t shot enough.

    On the first glance, Oliver did make a few mistakes in the first half. The Ramsey offside call because the player himself stopped running towards the ball, Mustafi not getting a yellow card for fouling the opponent before Xhaka conceded a penalty and Gosling got away with a foul high up the pitch without a yellow card.

  51. Thank God . Menace here putting plenty of polish on Turd like first half performance . They should have had at least three sent off we should have had 5 pens and we must have had 20 nail on chances

  52. Incidentally the booking for the foul on Alexis should have been a red card. Kicking a player from behind on the achilles? Ask Xhaka he was red carded.

  53. Sorry Mike T, but your explanation is starting to sound silly. Both players moved towards the ball, Ramsey stopped and as Finsbury points out he clearly indicates he’s not challenging for the ball whereas Silva makes a swing for the ball, Ramsey was near the halfway line and Silva was only a few feet away from Cech, yet it’s Ramsey who gets called?? If this really is how the new offside law is interpreted then we’re f**ked.

  54. Menace
    Once Ramsey moved toward the ball he was rightly flagged as being offside and the descion was correct had he not moved at all the descion would have been that he wasn’t effecting the Bournemouth players but once the assts flag goes up it would be rare for the ref to ignore it.
    A whole set of things that have to be taken into account when the incident is in the box. The interpretation isn’t mine it’s within both FIFA and theFA directives.The ball was too far away from Silva for him to play the ball and he would only have been flagged as offside if the ball had somehow found its way to him
    I think the whole offside thing is a mess but the changes came about they say in an attempt to see more goals

  56. Mike T – the assistant flags position. The ref decides interference. THe ref was wrong because the player showed non interference.

  57. Josif, You are of course entitled to your opinion.

    AFC employed a physio who made his name in world football for his understanding of the two/three day recovery window. There were many other candidates who applied to join the Lewin team over the years all of them talented and skilled (& not on Twitter or failing to troll this blog like some others!), I’ve met one or two over the years, unfortunately for them none of them had the football credentials of the chap who finally got the gig. Professi

    If you think recovery time bears no relevance in football you are certainly entitled to your opinion. No objection from me. I went into this match expecting AFC to be sluggish in the closing and opening spells and unlike some others (not you!) I don’t have any crystals footballs (not even the one!)

    I’m happy to trust the Experts

    COYG!

  61. Where Ramsey was tackled (good tackle!) Alli would have left a leg out and been awarded the softest of soft pelanties.

    If he had left a leg out he’d have got the Eduardo treatment!

  63. Al

    The focus would have been purely on Ramsey as he was the most advanced. There is no doubt he moved toward the ball. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he saw the flag go up the fact he stopped and put his arms up was irrelevant.
    As I have been saying I think the rule is a mess but take some time out and read FIFAs guidance on when a player is considered to be effecting play and when he is considered as being active

  64. At first I thought it was accidental (still should have been a foul…) but looking at the replay, and particularly the movement of his foot, it looks a lot like Adam on Alexis

  71. What is the difference between the Xhaka penalty and that foul on Bellerin?
    Another clear example of bias

  76. it couldn’t have been a more obvious push on Bellerin , ref blind again

  79. @Arsenal 13,
    I said the same exact thing, only difference was the color of the shirts were swapped.

  80. Menace

    Suggest you read the instructions given to asst referees for deciding involvement is very much something the asst has to take into account before he flags

  81. A beyond woeful performance, also PGMOL revenge for wengers comments about them recently.

  84. This is nothing but bent. I just can’t believe there could be any iota of fairness in the way Arsenal matches are officiated. Arsenal are not allowed to tackle and the opposition gets away with almost anything imaginable.

  85. Similar foul on bellerin as the one Xhaka made, but nothing given. Pitch-tilting at its best…

  86. we are completely lackadaisical, well that’s it for title hopes
    good performance by the ref, two wrong important decisions but no bias as far as i can tell (one goal incorrectly ruled out, one incorrectly stood)
    good game by Bournemouth, wish them all the best

  105. Lol the previous push by Mustafi (no foul called) before his yellow just now was more of a push them the penalty no? What’s a push? Heh
    –
    Was it a red? I have no idea, looking forward to the review for this one!
    –
    COYG

  114. finsbury are you referring to Jagielka? it was too little too late, very different from this one

  119. With attendence of 11 thousand and change, there can’t be many Arsenal fans at the game?

    Let’s tie this game up.

    COYG!

  121. 4 possible penalties not one given. There are far too many fouls in the box going unseen by Oliver & his assistant.

  129. Well, Ollie assisted two and then scored (assisted by Xhaka). I guess we want Xhaka to score now!

    COYG!

  134. i think the main take away from this game is that Iwobi is not ready for playing centrally

  135. 6 minutes added on time, we scored in added on time, surely we should have had at least a minute or so added on top of that??

  137. Unlucky Gunners, well played when fatigued. Huge effort over the Xmas crunch from Giroud & Alexis in particular, unfortunately not having Ozil or Gibbs available for a little bit rotation makes a little bit of difference but well played nonetheless.

  138. Drat, no win.

    Bournemouth is quite the team. They have a middle aged country rocker (Charlie Daniels), and they have a top economist from 250 years ago (Adam Smith).

    I was just reading, I don’t know if the officiating was as bad as some are saying here. I just know the dmaned medja won’t say a thing about the officials.

  139. Al & A13

    Only slightly transparent eh? 🙂
    pgMOB Rules (OK?) football. It’s a laugh a minute.

    Well played the Arsenal.

  140. I didn’t want to post anything in the second half, a bit of a jinx. 🙂 It worked.

    Giroud the hero, Lucas Perez gave a top cameo again.

    All-in-all, I will be satisfied with this point given the circumstances.

  141. Mike t – city were offside for both goals & the officials were absolute bullshit as Oliver was today. The pundits were salivating at the possibility of Arsenal being beaten & just cannot bear the fact that despite all the planning Arsenal are still fighting.

  142. They deserve immense credit coming back from that.
    If we were refereed in the same way as others around us, that would have been a win

  143. The team played their hearts out; managed to get a point against seemingly biased officiating, and after playing another bruising encounter only 48hrs ago. The Bournemouth third goal should never counted, but anyway what did we expect. Well done.

  147. Everything else being equal I’d say that the only incorrect match changing decision was for Bournemouth’s third. A definite push on Bellerin.

  149. @Gord,

    From watching, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Oliver get a high overall score, but poor score for important decisions and high bias.

    For example: Xhaka push was a penalty (right), Fraser pushes Bellerin before scoring and it was not called a foul (not called right). Should have been 3-2 Gunner, 2 points robbed, and inconsistent officiating.

  153. Finsbury
    This league is beyond a joke now. A sub in injury time results in at least half a minute added on, think gets even more. But Oliver stopped the clock at around 5:56secs!

    There was so much that went on wrong in this match, that I’m expecting the review to look like Walter spilled some ketchup over it.

  154. Their first 2 goals were personal mistakes on our part…BUT…The team did not quit. Whatever we can say about the referee and a poor first half on our part…this feels like a win. Let’s push on.

  155. Menace stop being a cry baby and man up . Play shit first half , gift goals then you suffer , listen to the players they don’t blame others , because they know that they were at fault .

  156. Al and for scoring a goal in extra time you also allow half a minute…. So should have been another extra minute after the end of the 6 (that we even didn’t reach…)

  159. Meance I was swearing like mad double standards every goal we got was a big fuck you but I said to my mater at 3-0 hes done hes job the best we can do is draw and then he will tilt it hence early stop AL

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