Bournemouth v Arsenal: the team, and a spot of “just in case you were interested”

 

 

• Arsenal’s position at the top of the Premier League injury table
• Bournemouth v Arsenal: Bournemouth’s journey to the top league
• Bournemouth and Chelsea: two clubs with the same problem, but different solutions
• How referees change season by season

By Tony Attwood

The predicted team for today’s game in Bournemouth is, according to the Metro…

Raya

Timber   Saliba   Gabriel   Lewis-Skelly

Odegaard   Zubemendi   Merino

Saka   Havertz   Trossard

 

SportsMole insist that in relation to Rice’s injury, Arteta has since played down the severity of his concern and expressed hope that he would be fit for the weekend.

They predict a 1-3 win for Arsenal and give us a team line-up which includes Rice instead of Merino and Havertz as centre forward.

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly;

Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice;

Saka, Jesus, Trossard

The Evening Standard is still within its “I-spy” mode of journalism and tells us that “Rice was spotted with the Arsenal squad on their pre-match walk on Saturday morning.”  Ah, “spotted”.   I’d thought the days of using that word in headlines were behind us.

Indeed, that really does take us back a bit to the days when over half the football stories in the media each day were about who was spotted where, without ever telling us spotted by whom and what they were doing.  They were all just “spotted”.

The Standard, however are having none of this instant return for Havertz stuff, and instead tell us “Kai Havertz is available but is not yet ready to start.”   They also go along with the idea that, impressive as Martinelli has been of late, he also won’t start.

There is of course, a logic in this – Martinelli has both pace and skill, and bringing him on in the second half as the defenders begin to slow really can help Arsenal wrap up a game – if that is what is needed.  Martinelli is now 24 years old, however, and the memory of the atrocious way Manchester United treated him in his younger days may have faded.  But I do hope not – he’s a superb player as his goals this season have yet again shown us.

The Standard go with

Raya;

White, Gabriel, Saliba, Hincapie;

Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard;

Saka, Jesus, Trossard

 

The BBC have an interesting chart for the match which shows some interesting extra stats that haven’t cropped up elsewhere such as “Shots: AFC Bournemouth 195Arsenal 213.”  I’d have expected a greater difference, but I guess that means that Arsenal tend to shoot where there is a greater chance of scoring rather than any time, all the time.   

Although when we come to look at shots on target, Bournemouth are in front of Arsenal just – with 98 to 97.   Now that might make Arsenal seem wasteful, but in fact shooting more often does make the keeper more jittery and less sure about what is coming next.

What is also interesting is the passing accuracy percentage for each side, which is nearly identical – Bournemouth being on 80.4% and Arsenal marginally ahead on 85.5%.

But there is one huge statistical difference that can be found in these more obscure statistics – the issue of points dropped from a winning position.   With Bournemouth, that is 13 points.   With Arsenal, that is just two.   In other words, if Arsenal go ahead, they stay ahead, and there is precious little anyone can do about it.

However, let us not think it is all over before it has even started, for Chris Sutten on his BBC page says, “I covered Bournemouth’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea on Tuesday and the Cherries really impressed me.   Andoni Iraola’s side has gone 10 games without a win, but they have drawn four of their past five matches, and they carried a real threat against the Blues.”

He particularly praised the “long throws” but also added that “they did look dangerous in open play and, with the way Iraola plays, this is not going to be easy for Arsenal.”   But in the end, even he backed away from an Arsenal defeat and predicted a final result of AFC Bournemouth 1 Arsenal 2.

And if I may, let me leave you with a bit of trivial nonsense.   Not that many clubs change their names over the decades but both of these teams have done just that.   Arsenal have at different times been Dial Square (but only for just one game), Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal and Arsenal.   AFC Bournemouth were previously Boscombe St. John’s Institute FC, Johns Institute FC, Boscombe FC, and then for most of their league life, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic.  Indeed just as many Arsenal fans still chant “The Arsenal” during games, supporters of Bournemouth can still be heard chanting “Boscombe”, which is actually the physical location of the ground, and if nothing else can confuse the supporters of other clubs.

I’ve not been back to Bournemouth’s ground for a number of years so I’m not too sure what they chant now, but I thought I’d just throw it in.  Just in case you were interested.  Since I was writing.  And just in case on hearing “Boscombe” chanted you might think you are in the wrong ground.

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