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By Bulldog Drummond
From 1923/4 to 1970 Bournemouth (or Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic to give them their full name or “Boscbome” as they were called by their supporters), were a 3rd Division (South), and later a Third Division, club They never went to the dizzy heights of the 2nd Division, nor down to the wretched depths of the fourth.
Until finally the spell broke, and they discovered for the first time other leagues did exist. Or at least that the fourth division existed.
But ultimately they recovered, and indeed recovered in a way that no one who visited the ground in those days past when one end (uniquely in football) was called the Brighton Beach End. (Apparently, it was built on stony ground).
Finally, this tiny club with a tiny ground in a very non-football-orientated middle-class retirement town made it up to the top league in 2015/16. It had taken them just six years in their final burst to rise from the fourth tier to the first.. They have popped up and down a bit since, but basically they have spent most of their time in the lasts ten years in the Premier League. The ground’s capacity is now 11307, and yes they are still in the same ground although it has been rotated) as they were in their fourth division days. 28,799 once turned up for a FA Cup match against Man U. In the last two seasons they have come 15th and 12th.
So in essence, clubs of a very different background – one thoroughly middle class, one built on the foundations laid by the men who build the weapons for the British army.
But to bring us to the present, the good place to start is as it invariably is, the home and away tables for the two clubs, as this tends to tell us more about the two clubs in a forthcoming match than any other analysis can do. Although of course, we are still early in the season so the numbers are small…
| Team | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | AFC Bournemouth home | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | Arsenal away | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
Advantage obviously Arsenal, although again of course, these clubs have only played three games each in these categories so it is alaos worth having a look back to last season.
| 2023/4 | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | AFC Bournemouth home | 19 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 27 | 28 | -1 | 27 |
| 2 | Arsenal away | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 43 | 13 | 30 | 42 |
And that I would say is a definitive advantage to Arsenal with Arsenal getting 2.21 points per away game on average against Bournemouth’s 1.42 points per home game. Arsenal’s average away score was 2.26 goals for 0.68 goals against.
Because of Bournemouth’s willingness to linger in the lower reaches for most of their league time in the League which they joined in 1923 – just two years before Herbert Chapman joined Arsenal – the clubs have only played each other 16 times, of which Bournemouth have won one, drawn two and lost 13.
If we take the last eight games the results have been seven wins for Arsenal and one draw, and the goal total is 22 for Arsenal and five for Bournemouth giving a rounded average of around 3-1 to Arsenal. The best win was the home victory in February 2019 (5-1); the aggregate score from last season was 7-0 to Arsenal across the two games.
Taking a look at the results of Bournemouth against the “big seven” clubs (and we are still being incredibly generous in calling Manchester Unite who are 14th and Tottenham (ninth) “big clubs”) we can see that obviously Bournemouth play 14 games in a league season against these sides, meaning about 37% of their games are against the seven.
So far they are running a little above this average and in fact they haven’t won any of the ganes against this group. In fact they have beaten Everton and Southampton, suggesting that although they won’t fly high they will almost certainly pick up enough points to survive once again.
Their one match at home against a bigger club so far this campaign was a 0-1 defeat to Chelsea.
More later …..
