Bournemouth v Arsenal Reserves: Arsenal top of the league for injuries

 

 

• AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal: 19 October 5.30pm: the background
• Just how good is Mikel Arteta as a manager? And does it help to change managers?

By Bulldog Drummond

Arsenal don’t have a whole team absent with injuries at the moment – but they are as near as damn it.   Only Manchester United equal them with ten injuries while at the other end of the charts WHAM and Bournemouth each have one man day.

The extraordinary thing is that despite having a teams-worth of men out, Arsenal have still allowed so many to go and play internationals.   There really ought to be a rule that says that once a club has four players out, countries should be forbidden from taking any players at all from the clubs.

In that way countries would think twice before allowing players to play on with injuries, or worse, using players who they know are injured, on the gamble that they can just get through one more game – after which the club can sort out the problem.

In effect what we have this weekend is Bournemouth vs Arsenal Reserves, and that really is how the match should be reported (although of course the Fifa and Uefa supporting media will have none of it, any more than they will talk about the referee).

Worse still Odegaard is most certainly not ready to return, so he’ll be out again.  Although there seems to be a chance that Saka could recover.  Arteta is reported as saying, “We have some big tests today so we are hopeful.”

There is also some hope that Kai Havertz can recover in time for the Bournemouth TV game, having thankfully pulled out of the Germany squad with “knee problems”.

Last season Saka scored 16 league goals, Havertz 13 and Trossard 12   This season Havertz is out on his own with four.  But Arsenal have scored 15 goals in seven games, with the match against Bournemouth to come.  Last season it then moved on to 16 goals in eight games, so with a bit of luck Arsenal could be ahead on goals this season, compared to last despite the injuries.

(Incidentally, can you remember where Tottenham were in terms of league position after eight games last season?   Well, allow me to remind you, they were top, and did they not make a huge fuss out it – new stadium paying for itself, team at the top, and it was all looking so good… Today they are already seven points behind Arsenal, and in ninth position in the League.  If results go our way they could be in the lower reaches after this round of games.)

But back to serious matters.  Kai Havertz should be ok to play against Bournemouth, but Martinelli probably not.  Odegaard is one more week away from a return (all being well), and Thomas Partey is OK too.   Timber could return, and Ben White, who we were told was ready to return before the international interruption seems still to be out.  Tierney is still listed as “out for a few more weeks”.

Bournemouth’s only injury is Tyler Adams who has been out for getting on for a year, but is expected back soon.

But let us move on to more savoury topics – like goals and shots.  Bournemouth and Arsenal are virtually equal with shots per game – Arsenal are on 16.3 shots per game and Bournemouth on 16.7.   The difference is that Arsenal have got 15 goals and Bournemouth eight.  Only ManC and Tottenham Ho have more shots per game than Arsenal and Bournemouth this season.

In terms of yellow cards Chelsea are of course way out in front – it is their big thing after all.  They have 27 yellows, closely followed by ManU and Wolverhampton.  Bournemouth are on 19 and Arsenal on 17.

As for the situations surrounding all this ManU are the biggest nasty foulers with 19 cards from fouls and such mighty warriors as Ipswich with 18.  West Ham have 15 and Arsenal 12.

Of course commentators do love to talk about possession rather than the fouling but really that doesn’t tell us that much.  Manchester City are top of the possession league with 63.4% closely followed by Tottenham with 62.3% – showing as we have seen before that possession doesn’t mean wins.

Bournemouth’s possession at home is 37.7% while Arsenal’s possession away from home is 39.5%.  That, as you may have already worked out, means that if both teams played to their normal home/away style then the referee would have 23% of the ball.  Which knowing PGMO, is possible but even so….

Arsenal play a more possession positive game at home taking it up to 56.5% which if Bournemouth play their normal game takes us up to just over 94%.   So yes, I rather suspect Arsenal are going to go into this game as if it were a home game, and Bournemouth are going to try and catch Arsenal on the break.