Have you ever been to Bournemouth? Lovely place and a very pleasant drive (off motorway) from North London. I have never had the pleasure of going to Dean Park but I am told it is a cosy stadium.
If you want evidence that AFC Bournemouth are punching above their weight it is that Dean Court holds under 12,000 fans! Their journey in the last 10 years has been the stuff of fairy tales; to go from Div 3 (Div 4 in Old Money) and administration to be a Top 10 side in the PL is astonishing.
Proof of their improvement is that so many Gooners would take a draw from this afternoon.
How can it be that a side whose total cost is less than our front three are such strong opponents? Teamwork, organisation, very hard work, fine managership and belief. Last season Bournemouth were that hardest working team in the PL, this season it is Arsenal (I think).
Bournemouth have International players in their squad and not just chaps who represent Uzbekistan or Nepal, they have blokes who have caps for England, France, Scotland etc. They are a young team, a team to admire.
But we can beat them.
We got turned over at Dean Court last season in a topsy-turvy game we should have won. 2 goals conceded in 4 minutes did for us after Wobbly had set up Catwalk for our goal.
Defensive discipline is the order of the afternoon as B’mouth are excellent on the counter attack with speed being their chief weapon,
Much has been written about Eddie Howe, probably deservedly. He seem like a nice boy. It will be interesting which big club takes him and which club will be first to lose their high profile manager; Klopp, Sarri, Emery, Guardiola, Poch – one of them will be on their way to Spain/France.
Arsenal go into the game on a series of draws, costly in terms of points but good for confidence. Many pundits say we are over-achieving but if one looks at the squad I think the opposite, we are under-achieving. Bournemouth away should be a regulation 3 points, just as S’ton away was.
The recurrence of Monreal’s injury is worrying given his age, we need better cover than Kolasinac, especially against a counter-attacking team.
Post Interlull some players could be rested following draining long distance travel, Iwobi being the chap with the most airmiles.
My Team:
Bent
Catwalk Mustafi Greek Bloke Wardrobe
Terrier Xhaka
Mhiki Mesut
Laca PEA
Did you know that 42% of AFC attacks come from the left wing? This imbalance is worrying when one has a hefty left FB who is required to work in defence as well as overlap the left- sided MF.
Transition is a much used term about our team and there is no question we have yet to see a true Emery team. As we enter a very difficult run of PL games his main area of concern will be our defence ,especially on the counter. Let’s hope Umai has spent the Interlull working with our back 5.
Win this and we are well set up for the Miscreants from London HA9 😀
COYRRG
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
COYMFG!!!!
nothing but a win today please
No Ozil or Laca!
And a Back 3 with Holding keeping his place.
Verry interesting
Wow, Emery likes a radical lineup!
Thanks BR
What a super first half in the Birmingham Derby. Attacking derbies are what make our footie so entertaining.
COYG.
Great work, thanks Raddy. It looks like we are playing 3:6:1 .. or is that 5:4:1 …. or 3:4:3?
Is this brilliant tactics by UE or just us stitching together a team reduced due to injury and fatigue from the Internationals?
Laca’s not on the bench … so injured I guess?
Looks like a counter attacking line up for us with a defensive basis. With Mesut, Ouzi and Rambo to terrorise them in the second half
Must be an injury to Laca. We do not have much firepower on the bench, do we?
Pivotal game for us ….. we need to maintain the momentum, let’s hope for a more positive first half!
Could be a post in whether this is a pivotal game. It depends upon one’s expectations for the season.
Off out to party 😦
See you post match
Looks like another turn down the sound with Smith again. When did he last talk about Arsenal without a “but”
Laca, tight groin not being risked according to Arsenal.com.
I’ve got one of those 🙄
Ainsley and Mesut in last 25 mins to secure 3-1.
Think this formation will suit kolasinac well
How did you get your tight groin, Rasp? Or shouldn’t we ask!!
Yea bench really week
Overdoing it LBG … surgery required 😦
The Wardrobe is a great lump of a man but does not put himself about, either in the air or on the ground.
Another slow start and where are Aubang, Wobbly and Micki demanding the ball, making runs?
They outplaying us damn, our first half are so horrible to watch
The Wardrobe is not ready. Ainsley to replace him at half time , please.
A bit of luck. Ya ri va!
That how u do it Iwobi
Common mkhitaryan make them count
Sounds like an all action game … let’s see if we can go in at half time still in front. If we do, this will be the first game this season where we’ve been leading at half time.
Shape when in attack. Five in the box and Wobbly tries a back heel. Naive!
Doh!! … my bad 😦 ….. it seems we are still predictable 🙄
Cretinous defending with 1 minute left in the half
Actually, the ball went into the net after the extra minute.
Why did they need to attack like that with a minute to go?
We have seen that so many times
Xhaka caught on it again familiar words
Is it me or we hardly pressing
Holding has a lot of composure
Mkhitaryan is woeful today
Seriously, when will they tell Mustafi your tackling is a liability. Don’t do…..ever again.
Three ( luckyish) points. Well done lads.
Fuckin hell. watching Arsenal is going to shorten my life.
So true chas, mkhitaryan just had to kill off the game but no that would be to easy let the fans have a heart attack
Then mustafi wait we can’t win the game so easy let the fans have a heart attack
Lucky indeed
Thick as pig shit Jamie……
So walked the dog; cleared my head and still want a rant!
Don’t think I have the strength of willpower to do a full positive post match, but want to ask AAs and Dick a question.
How long are we going to persist with Mustafi ( please, please don’t pick him against the Spuds!), and for that matter Sokratis. Who went up to him after the game and gently nutted the German with ” what the f****** hell was that in the 95th minute?” That wasn’t even the incident that made me even madder!! In the second half he found himself right down in the right hand attacking corner. Bellerin’s lost the ball and instead of simply standing up and blocking the long ball out,, he slid in, missed the ball and player, surprise, surprise and Bournemouth by the will of some God, messed up the fast break with a 3v2 situation.
Who tells Sokratis that it’s not all in wrestling and can’t you see, the refs will penalise you?
I hope that Kos can return and play more of a sweeping role behind Holding, with again hopefully, Mav learning as back up.
I suppose the situation is magnified because at least three partnerships above us are so superior in ability – Gomez/Van Dijk, Laporte/Stones, Alderweireld/Vertongen (and I think Burnley pair are better too.
A small second point. Isn’t shooting likely to improve with practice? I think the answer is should do provided player has the brains in the fraction of a second to ask, what do I need to do skillwise to put this shot on target. Thus Wobbly, Aubang I can only deduce don’t think!
Sorry for the negative. Don’t feel much better.
Lol
I’ve done something for tomorrow which will go up unless something better appears.
The funniest thing I heard today was Henik Walcottaryan.
I am really upbeat about today.
Imbalanced highlights on MOD for anyone who didn’t watch live. Mind you extra would have shown our shit shooting.
It’s good to have a CB or 2 who want to attack the ball and get tight to the attackers. The problem we have is that Sokratis and Mustafi are very similar in the way they defend and we end up with nobody covering if either of them fail to win the initial challenge. Koscielny is badly missed in this respect as he is/was very good at reading the play and he has/had the pace to get around and cover any mistakes made by his defensive partners.
I hope he comes back strong but with his age and the type of injury he’s had I fear that his best days are behind him.
Got to say though that I was really impressed with Emery’s tactics. Bournemouth’s wingers have been excellent this season, but by playing 3 at the back we managed to get our wing backs in space and that made their wingers defend and put them in places they didn’t want to be and ultimately that won us the game. I also liked the fact he chose a team of hard working players who had the energy and legs to match Bournemouth. It was a fantastic result and one we desperately needed going into the Spurs game next week.
NEW POST
Lol walcottaryan