From Man C onto Bournemouth. What next for Arsenal?

By Tony Attwood

So, following a 4-1 home win against the fancied Villa at home, Arsenal move to the very unfancied Bournemouth away with a feeling of positivity.

Which is in contrast to Manchester City, not least as the Daily Mail has reported that their 13 club group has been accused of ‘stockpiling’ players in order to stop other clubs buying them, or at least stopping other clubs buying them at reasonable prices. Yet another accusation to add to the ever-growing list.

And now we see Arsenal four points ahead, and just one goal behind on goal difference. Plus the gap down to Liverpool (who have clambered up to fourth) being 12 points. It’s 15 to Chelsea and Manchester United – quite a lot when put like that.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	19	14	3	2	37	12	25	45
2	Manchester City	19	13	2	4	43	17	26	41
3	Aston Villa	19	12	3	4	30	23	7	39
4	Liverpool	19	10	3	6	30	26	4	33
5	Chelsea	19	8	6	5	32	21	11	30
6	Manchester United	19	8	6	5	33	29	4	30

That of course, does not mean that any resting on laurels can be allowed, but it is the return of a bit of a gap, and that is welcome. And it is interesting indeed, as it comes when Enzo Maresca’s leaving of Chelsea came as a bit of a surprise. There is immediate talk of him going to ManC of course, since ManC have so far successfully held off all serious resolution of the 115 charges against them. Talk behind the scenes of the other 19 clubs in the Premier League giving notice to quit, and form a new league, continues.

But now immediately we have to look forward to the next fixture which is indeed tomorrow, Saturday, at 5.30p,away to Bournemouth, whose home record is only one point below Arsenal’s away record.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
11	AFC Bournemouth home	9	4	4	1	11	6	5	16
3	Arsenal away	9	5	2	2	11	7	4	17

But Bournemouth have been changeable this season. After a run of seven games without defeat up to the end of October, they then seemed to go into full-scale reverse. At the end of October, the top of the league looked like this (although you may find it hard to believe unless you have a great memory for such detail…)

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	9	7	1	1	16	3	13	22
2	AFC Bournemouth	9	5	3	1	16	11	5	18

But then they went on a run of ten consecutive matches, which contained five defeats, five draws and no wins at all and in which they conceded 24goals, as compared with 11 goals in the first nine games. That run of nine matches saw them second in the league, only behind Arsenal.

However, to be fair and give the whole picture, the last two home games have been draws against Chelsea (0-0) and Burnley (1-1. In between they have drawn 4-4 with Manchester United.

The current state of play for the whole season is as you can see in the top table above, fairly balanced, but if we look at the last six matches, as we invariably do before a league game, we find a different picture…

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal	6	5	0	1	12	5	+7	15
16	Bournemouth	6	0	4	2	8	12	-4	4

Such figures make it look inevitable that Arsenal will win, even though they are away from home.

But what has caused Bournemouth to drop so far so fast?

On explanation that is given is the absense of Tyler Adams and Marcos Senesi, and a lack of depth in the squad, due in fact to their limited resources. Although theire ground capacity will rise to 20,000 in two and a half years time, for the moment it is 11,300, making it the smallest ground in the league and under 18% the size of Arsenal’s stadium – which itself is (according to “reports”) going to be expanded by anotehr 10,000.

The smallness of the ground leads to a lack of financial resources which leads to a lack of depth in the team. Indeed for a club with a long history of playing in the third tier of English football. (they were primarily a third division club until 1992) their eight years in the top division in the last ten seasons is completely remarkable.

So a lack of depth in the squad is completely understandable, but has its consequences. Yet they have the tenth best attack and the sixth best defence in the league which is pretty impressive given the lack of resources and the fact that they have had to make numerous changes to the defence.

But perhaps the biggest issue is that they do have a limited squad, and yet are trying to play a high pressing approach, which leads to player exhaustion and a tendency to give away goals when the high pressing approach is broken up.

More later

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