Arsenal v Bournemouth, more Arsenal players and AFCB&B last season

• It really had to happen: clubs are suing Fifa over abuse of dominant position
• Arsenal v Bournemouth. Off we go again

The picture below is of the stadium where the game will be  played.  It will be rather warm and the open terracing is not particularly recommended (at least judging from this picture and the weather forecast).

AFC Bournemouth, previously known as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic have spent most of their life in the lower divisions.  They did not reach the top tier until 2015/16, whereupon they were suspected by many to be ready to go straight back down to the lower levels.   

However they survived five seasons, in the Premier League coming between 9th and 18th in the Championship.   In their first season back down in the lower levels they reached the play offs, and in the second season came second and so rose up once more.  In the last two campaigns back in the Premier League they have finished a creditable 15th and 12th.

And I say creditable because not only does the club not have a tradition of playing in the top level of football, they also have a tiny ground – which is pretty much the ground they played in, in the days of the Third Division (South) but with seats and the pitch turned round the other way.

The capacity of the ground at the moment is 11,300 is about 19% of that of the Arsenal Stadium – which again is why I said “creditable”.   Here are the league positions of the clubs for last season…

So as we can see there was no danger of them slipping back down – but we should note perhaps that Arsenal’s goal difference was 75 better than that of Bournemouth, which would assume that generally speaking Bournemouth are there to be beaten by Arsenal.  Or that Arsenal will put out a young team and Bournemouth their first XI.

The clubs have played each other 16 times with 14 of these in the league, one in the FA Cup and one in the League Cup.  Arsenal have won 13, two have been drawn, and Bournemouth’s victory came on 14 January 2018 with a 2-1 win on their home ground.

However the four league games in the two Arteta seasons have ended up as Arsenal wins with Arsenal scoring 13 goals and Bournemouth two (those coming in the extraordinary game on 4 March last year.  Since it all ended well you might want to remind yourself of the way this game turned out…  But don’t blink at the start.  Here’s the link…https://youtu.be/_fPUmgoU7q8 )

Of course Bournemouth might have a chance in this match if they put out a full first team and Arsenal play some of the youth players on the tour.   In the previous preview Arsenal v Bournemouth. Off we go again we took a quick look at some of the players Arsenal have taken with them to the United States.  Here are a few more.  Details of course come from Arsenal.com

Michal Rosiak is 18 years old and played 41 times in different youth teams last season – the most of any player.   And apparently in five months of last season he got a goal or an assist in each of seven out of eight games.  He has played at various levels for Poland as well.

In 2021/2 he scored nine for the under 18s in 26 games.

Myles Lewis Skelly is 18 and described by the club as a “ball-carrying midfielder” who has been with Arsenal since the age of eight.     He signed a pro contract last season and is an England youth international.  He is particularly remembered thus far for scoring the winning goal against Manchester C in the Youth Cup semi-final the season before last.

There will be a little more on some of the players in the USA in the next preview.

The ground where the match is taking place (pictured at the top of the article) holds 27,000 and is known as the Dignity Health Sports Park.  It is in Carson, California – home of the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer.   The temperature these days is reaching 30 degrees C before noon.

As we have known from the start, Saka, Rice, Raya, Ramsdale and Saliba are not on the tour, and Gabriel, Martinelli and Havertz have got late notes.  Karl Hein is expected to be in goal and presumably Nen White and Martin Odegaard will be holding the team together as they have no played in the summer.