Match Day Thread Bournemouth vs Arsenal Matchday Thread

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Venue: Vitality Stadium
Day: Tuesday 3rd January 2017
Kick Off Time: 19:45pm

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Head to Head against Bournemouth:

Played: 3
Won: 3
Drawn: 0
Lost: 0
Goals For: 7
Goals Against: 1
Goal Difference: 6+

Arsenal's Form:

WLLWW

Bournemouth's Form:

LWLLW

Last 6 Meetings:

Arsenal 3-1 Bournemouth
Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Bournemouth

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Team News:

Benik Afobe will be available for Bournemouth's Premier League clash with Arsenal after opting not to link up with DR Congo at the African Nations Cup.

Arsenal loanee Jack Wilshere is ineligible to face his parent club for Tuesday's Vitality Stadium clash, but Afobe's presence boosts Cherries boss Eddie Howe's resources.

Max Gradel could now miss as many as six weeks of Bournemouth's season after linking up with Ivory Coast for the African tournament.

Mesut Ozil is expected to miss Arsenal's Premier League fixture at Bournemouth on Tuesday after illness ruled him out of Sunday's 2-0 defeat of Crystal Palace.

There could be starts for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Shkodran Mustafi after each featured on the bench against the Eagles having recovered from injury.

Manager Arsene Wenger will likely make further changes to his team as they prepare for their second match in three days, meaning Aaron Ramsey and Francis Coquelin will be among those in contention.



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Mustafi back in the team will make a huge difference I think. Hopefully he is fit and ready to start.

With the last game only a couple of days ago I assume we will see some rotation but with Ozil and Walcott out it'll be interesting to see how we line up.

Xhaka was really good against Palace so I'd like to see him start again if he has the energy for it. Maybe alongside Coquelin since he was rested in the last game.

--------------Cech---------
Bellerin----Kosc--Mustafi---Monreal
---------Coquelin----Xhaka---------
Perez---------Iwobi-------Sanchez
---------------Giroud---------------

Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Maitland Niles (assuming all of Jenkinson, Gibbs and debuchy are out injured), Oxocube, Ramsey, El Neny, Adelaide (can't think of anyone else fit who can make the bench?)

But I think we may see Oxocube in the starting line up, maybe in place of Iwobi in the middle. Possibly on the wing instead of Perez but I hope not as he played really well last time out. Ramsey it will depend on his fitness after illness. If he is up to it we might see him start instead of Iwobi?

We need to come out strong and put the game to bed early on. When we have games this quickly we often see players looking tired and unable to play to there full ability late on in games. So ideally we will get ourselves a couple of goals in the first half and be able to control the game in the second bringing in players like El Neny who work hard and retain possession. If we haven't scored by 60 mins I'll start to worry about how things are going to turn out. Hit them hard, hit them fast, play to a level they are unable to cope with and then slow it right down when we have a two goal cushion.

 

Also I'd expect Giroud after his wonder goal against Palace and managing to get a starting spot to be really fired up at the moment. He is one of the players who sometimes struggles to keep up his level for 90 mins when playing regularly but will be highly motivated at the moment I'd expect.

Perez is another one I'd think will be really motivated and looking to keep his place in the starting line up. With Walcott out he is getting his chance and he comes across as the type of player who really works hard to succeed. Since he hasn't played that much this season I'm hoping he can handle playing multiple games in a row in quick succession without too much fatigue.

The defense should be fine and Sanchez will run himself into the ground even if he is running on empty.

So overall I think the team should be in a good place to play well in this game. We will need to use subs in the second half as I'm sure we will see some tired legs (two games in two days at this level really is a big physical task) but hopefully the bulk of the first team can handle it.

I can see Wenger maybe putting Perez on the bench to replace Giroud since we don't have other options from the bench, but it could well be that Giroud comes off and Perez or Sanchez just move up top and any of Ramsey/Oxocube/Iwobi/Adelaide depending on who starts, steps in on the wing.

 

We dispatched them comfortably home and away last season, but this season at The Emirates, they outplayed us for a majority of the first half so they've made substantial improvements in that regard. With Wilshere missing, he's going to be a huge loss for them, but Ozil always seems to play well against Bournemouth and he's ill, so it's slightly irritating that he's out for us.

That being said, we should have more than enough quality to beat them again and with Mustafi, Coquelin, Ramsey and Ox having fresh legs, as well as Perez and Giroud who haven't been playing that much this season, we should be able to bring in enough players who don't feel fatigued.

I'd expect Sanchez to start but, although he will always work tirelessly in every game he plays, I don't want him to be running out of steam early on and increase the risk of injury. We need to try and kill the game off early then take him off if we're comfortably in the lead.

Our starting XI is extremely difficult to predict, but we should have enough in the locker to put them away.

I hope we don't get complacent though because not only did they give us a very tough game in our last encounter, they've had good results this season: beating Stoke away (something we rarely ever do), drawing with Spurs, beating Liverpool and Everton. They also have some dangerous players going forward with Afobe, Wilson, Fraser, Ibe, Stanislas and King. They are all players who are capable of giving us a troublesome time.

Though he was very good in the last match, Monreal hasn't been great overall this season so I hope he gets extra defensive support from whoever we play on the left wing.

But anyway, Bournemouth are 9th in the table for a reason and won't roll over for us like they did last season. Interestingly enough, they have the same amount of clean sheets in the league as we do this season.

 

No Afobe. He's not got clearance from DR Congo to play.

Good to see Mustafi back in the team

 

Not sure why we're shoehorning Ramsey on the right. Maybe it's to provide defensive cover for Bellerin, but he won't provide much going forward. If we were gonna play him, it should have been in the middle of the park.

Perez & Ox should have started, in my opinion. Especially as the former has not been playing regularly, this would have been his chance to show what he can do.

 

Would like to have seen Perez on the right, but as you say maybe it's to give some defensive cover. We can always bring Perez and Ox on if we need to.

 

It just seems unnecessary to put a midfielder out wide when we have two accomplished wide players sitting on the bench. And both players aren't exactly slouches, yet they both provide a potent attacking threat too. We're not going to be able to stretch their defence with Aaron playing on the right. It unbalances the team.

 

I tend to agree. It should give Bellerin a bit more freedom though.

 

1-0 Bournemouth.
Really poor positional sense from Bellerin to leave Daniels in all that space.

Terrible defending.

 

If Ramsey is on to give some defensive cover on the flank, then I'd like to see him switch to the left for a bit, we're giving them far too much room down there.

 

fecking clowns!

 

Penalty Bournemouth. Stupid from Xhaka.
Ridiculous opening 20 minutes from Arsenal.

 

Stupid tackle....very f***ng stupid tackle!

 

Bellerin and Xhaka's poor judgement are why we are 2-0 down. Horrendous stuff so far, can't believe how shocking we've been at the back.

 

My stream went down ,just back to see it's 2-0 !

 

what a joke of a manager and team.

 

Just hope this lizard face leaves at the end of the season!

 

You can't play the likes of Giroud and Ramsey in a game like this. Bournemouth find it easy to push up and squeeze us in midfield because we have no-one to run in behind.

The team AW picked was too slow for a game against a team filled with hard-runners and players who love to press.

 

****ing useless