please log in to view this image Venue: Vitality Stadium Date: Saturday 19th October 2024 KO time: 17:30 BST Overall Record Wins: 13 Losses: 1 Draws: 2 Last six meetings Arsenal 3-0 AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth 0-4 Arsenal Arsenal 3-2 AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth 0-3 Arsenal AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Arsenal (FA Cup) AFC Bournemouth 1-1 Arsenal please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
No Saka or Timber. White is back in the team. Rice, Partey and Merino midfield to start - should be interesting to see how this goes. Gabriel Magalhaes the captain Sterling starts...this is a big game for him. I know he's not had a lot of minutes, but he's not been particularly great when he has featured. He's just been 'meh'. Gonna need more from him tonight in Saka's absence. Zinchenko is back and on the bench.
HT. ****ing disaster of a half. We weren't playing that well even before the red, but now it's going to be another mammoth task to win this game if we can. Trossard really put Saliba in an impossible situation with that awful pass. He's going to have to find a way to make up for this. Saliba shouldn't have put his arm on Evanilson, but I find it hard to blame him too much when he wasn't expecting that shocker of a pass from the Belgian. ****ing hell. I don't know how Sterling came off, he's been our most threatening player. Trossard should have been the one coming off. We were struggling for creativity anyway, but now it's going to be even tougher. No Saka, no Odegaard, no Sterling, Martinelli not fully fit...
Just realised Saliba will have a three-match ban because it's a straight red card. So he misses the huge game against Liverpool next week, Preston in the League Cup and Newcastle away. Preston away I'm not overly bothered about, but Liverpool and Newcastle are huge games and we're going to be missing one of our most important defensive players. Anyway, we need to find a way to win this now. Somehow. EDIT: Never mind, ignore. 3-match ban is only for violent conduct. Professional foul is 1-match.
5 minutes to go and it's 2-0 Bournemouth. It's been an absolutely horrific performance and result in every sense of the word. Truthfully, if Martinelli scored that 1v1, I think we win this game, but that was a pivotal moment and he missed. Then Bournemouth go up the other end and score a minute later. Kiwior's shocking back pass that then led to Raya making that foul for the penalty won't have him in Arteta's good books. Speaking of Arteta, he's really messed this game up. He kept three defensive-minded players on in the middle and two wide players with no transition threat. Shocking, shocking in game management. The thing that worries me isn't just the loss, it's the manner of it. This has been like a throwback to the 2020/21 performances. I really thought we'd got this type of bullshit out of our system, but seems like we haven't. Ah man. Already this is a huge, huge dent in our title hopes.
Although this decision wasn't a terrible one. It was soft - but you see them given. The fact remains though we haven't lost or even dropped points in months in a game without a somewhat controversial refereeing decision going against us. For whatever reason we are getting reffed more harshly than other sides. I think thats a fact. People say there are no biases and things even out - but back in the day we all knew certain grounds were impossible to get refereeing decisions on. Old Trafford for one. So if thats the case then surely - its also possible there can be agendas against specific teams and/or managers.
