This yet another tricky game to predict which team Arteta will set out at the Vitality Stadium. We know for sure that Odegaard, Tierney, Tomiyasu and Neto (ineligible) are all definitely unavailable, but we are very hopeful on Jurrien Timber, Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko, Saka and Havertz, despite Mikel Arteta being a bit cagey in his pre-game conference.
But I doubt that Martinelli will start the game as he’s had a long trip back from Brazil with his niggle, although Arteta may use him from the bench if needed. I’m also hoping to see a bit more of Ethan Nwaneri if we get into a comfortable position. IF…
So, this is my considered opinion of who will be on Arteta’s teamsheet today…
David Raya.
Ben White.
William Saliba.
Gabriel Magalhães.
Riccardo Calafiori.
Thomas Partey.
Declan Rice.
Mikel Merino.
Bukayo Saka.
Kai Havertz.
Leandro Trossard.
So, now we just have to wait for Arteta to name his confirmed team, and here it is:
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Come on Arsenal, let’s bag three points with a solid and confident performance in preparation for midweek ❤️🤍
Almost spot on prediction – shame we’re missing saka and timber. We look powerful in defence and midfield but a lot depends on how the forwards work together. Should be alright, but Bournemouth do have a good side…
How are we powerful in midfield having a newcomer in the orchestrator role ?
Trossard was just getting to understand the role, now we’ll have Merino there today, he’ll just be doing the simplest of things
Physically powerful
And trossard was nominally playing left wing before but also dropping into midfield to “orchestrate” – no reason he can’t do the same today
Just acknowledging I was wrong about this – he was often listed as a striker with havertz, but did drop into midfield. “Orchestrator role” is probably a fair description, and he should have been doing that today
3 red cards this early in the season.
No other club has the same problem.
Massive issue to be addressed.
It’s costing us big time
Nwaneri would cut inside from the right wing more easily than Sterling or Trossard
@Gai Yea I think Nwaneri will have some minutes in the game. He is left footed and should be better than Staerlin on the right Wing. But it’s an away game and Bouthmout can be difficult at home imo Sterling would pose more threat considering his experience. I am excited about the middield I think it would be difficult for any team to break down especially if they if they connect well. The frontline of Trossard+Havertz+Sterling are proven goal scorers.
Yes Arteta might think Nwaneri is still not ready for an away EPL game yet
This team seem built for area duels. Only Trossard and Sterling are diminutive rest are above 6foot. But Saka and Odegard’s creativity would be missed. They will most likely play direct may be.
Very strong looking midfield. Plenty of variation allowed from it. I like the front 3 and defence looks good. The midfield is interesting to see how it performs.
I actually don’t think the midfield is strong as you guys are saying
You mean strong in that it wouldn’t be easy for teams to break ?
We’re not playing Man City
It’s Bournemouth
Strong should be – it would be able to create and break the opposition
Looks like this midfield’s creativity will be really low today
Pretty strong team considering we are missing 3 of our best players in Odegaard, Saka and Timber. Midfield looks powerful but might lack a little creativity. Should still have enough to win if we do not underestimate Bournemouth.
I hope we win
I’m not confident, after seeing Sterling almost costing us the last match
This is a game for Sterling to dip his bread, except him to win the first of many penalties to come starting here.
We don’t have any creative spark at all
So poor going forward
That was expected with our midfield, all powerful with good technique but lacking that creative spark.
Onus on the wingers and havertz to shoulder the attacking burden.
If we are going to win this game then it will be set piece
That raya mistake was precisely why he took ramsdales spot. He’ll do things that way, they’ll go wrong hand up carry on
From the look of things, Merino won’t be displacing Party.
Many Arteta signings do initially struggle whilst adapting to our tactics
If this will be red then we can’t complain
Red card Saliba
No complaints this time
It was blatant red
Poor display from Arsenal😕
Sterling should returned back to Chelsea ASAP
Trossards cost us again.
Arteta shouldn’t have trusted Trossard, because he made too many irresponsible passes, despite his goals
Stupid stupid decision by Saliba, was never gonna be anything other than red.
Yes
Very stupid decision
You can’t put your arms around like that way
Take Sterling off and bring Martinelli
Saliba misses Liverpool game, at least!
And Chelsea as well
Now Saliba will be banned for Liverpool and Chelsea
This game is already over
Not chelsea as we have an epl match before.
EFL*
I think Saliba will be suspended for 3 matches
I think Liverpool Preston and Chelsea
No it’s a one game ban, as it wasn’t for violent conduct.
Ohh okay I was not aware of change
Thanks
Okay
But Liverpool will be a big miss
Yep and all 3 reds have been dumb ones.
Wait only red card for violent conduct get 3 so it’s only liverpool. Actually forgot that
Why hasn’t Arteta taken Sterling off, he adds nothing defensively and that’s what we’ll have to do for 60 plus minutes now.
Merino blowing out of his 🐴
Arteta should’ve replaced Trossard with a defender, instead of Sterling, because of Trossard’s awful backpass that led to Saliba’s red card
Trossard would likely make another brain fart, as he did in the previous games
Sterling is useless.Better Martinelli
He barely touched evanilson – he did touch him but it was also an obvious dive… Not sure how I feel about it – I’m not sure saliba really grabbed him and would have held him up because evanilson went down so quickly, it’s hard to tell. Can’t blame the ref either way tbh, and saliba did give evanilson the chance to go down.
Whether it is big touch or small it doesn’t matter
Saliba was last man
You can’t do like that when you are a last man
Well, it’s about impeding the forward, isn’t it? Some degree of contract is normal – I don’t think we saw enough to know if saliba impeded him, but I’ll have to watch it again.
Agree saliba *shouldn’t* have touched him and given the player the chance to go down – he should have forced evanilson to take it on and try to score. Worst case we’d have gone a goal down.
Exactly
Worst thing would have been that we would have been goal down
And you can’t be sure that Evanilson would scored that
You never know Saliba would have recovered because he is a pacey CB
Or Raya could have saved that
Overall it was very bad decision from player like Saliba
👍
Stonewall red card.
Now best possible results we can take is draw
Arsenal won’t win EPL this season, because they’ve got three red cards in six matches
Trossard must go in the summer, because of his reckless passes and lack of pace
Arsenal is jinxed
We need Martinelli in the 2nd half, Bournemouth will push for a winner and we will have chances on counters. Best case scenario is we score one and park the whole bus to defend that lead
Yes and with Martinelli we might nick some corners and we are very good at set piece
World knows that
Yes Big gabi to the rescue again on a corner
Losing Saliba was obviously a blow – but no doubt really it was a red. Arsenal will just have to re-group at the break and hope that they can find something extra, even with a man down.
This is the type of game that “potential” champions, like Arsenal, really have to get something from by the final whistle, even if it’s sharing the points.
red card every game 😡
You all were shouting it was a strong midfield
U haven’t watched Merino and already hyping him to be better than what we already have
Rice somehow anonymous
Merino – new guy, it’s expected to just be filling a role
Partey seem to be the only midfielder trying to do something
Zero connection in the attack
We didn’t even look like the better team with 11 now it’s worse
Trossard is not a good starter from the side, he shines when the play happens on the opposite wing then he gets on the pass from that opposite wing and scores
i.e We actually don’t really “PLAY” from his wing
Martinelli is what can raise our game a little
Merino Out, Trossard to the middle, Martinelli on the left
I agree with you on the midfield – I was saying at the start we had a physically powerful midfield but did hint that we were depending on the attackers to make something happen. I was hoping the havertz-trossard connection would be enough tbh. Some others were more positive but I think you equated the words powerful and strong with “good”, which isn’t exactly what everyone was saying.
Rice is an average 8 as RCM, nothing special in his game really. Rice is a top DM, without Odegaard’s creativity Rice doesn’t create much, but defends well higher up the pitch.
Merino and Rice as midfield had zero creativity today, and what happened to Sterling’s pace? No wonder Chelsea sent him away, he didn’t do much today except prove why he is 4th choice insurance cover on the wing.
Trossard was awful today, his worst game of the season. Kept repeating mistakes, created little, and actually hurt us on the LW today I thought.
Havertz had zero help and creativity from the wings today, but honestly not surprised.
Odegaard is the main creator, he is out, Saka has been carrying the load, he is out, and we have nothing else in midfield for creativity and the wingers were too flat today.
Disagree on your overall view of rice, but largely agree with the rest. I’d add is that we must have scored high proportion of our goals from our corners recently, which isn’t a great sign.
On a more positive note, I do think trossard was showing a good connection with havertz in previous games, which helped open teams up a bit and compensated for the loss of odegaard. As you said, he was very poor today, though.
I have to say, though, I think the main reason we struggled in this game is that we couldn’t break Bournemouth’s early press well enough. It’s something they’re good at, and we didn’t have a way to make the ball stick higher up the pitch. Havertz’ first touch isn’t great, and that’s what we really miss from odegaard – he’s extremely good at finding good when working in tight spaces.
When I say I disagree with your view on rice – I think he’s better at box to box for this team. He’s great defensively but I think it’s better to use his energy in both directions and have a better passer with better close control, like partey, sitting in front of the defence – of course neither rice nor merino has the skillet to replace what odegaard brings to the team. Nwaneri is probably the closest we have, and he’s very young.
We could have substituted Sterling before 10 minutes
Mis kick by Trossard, I dont think he meant to kick it so hard but Saliba has to back himself to get back. Silly red card. Another red card.
So many defeatists on here. Have a little faith, it’s not over yet! By the way I think Marino has played well.
Really!!!!! I was looking forwards to seeing him but he has been poor. He will get better but so far, not impressed.
He’s been great. Uae don’t pay you never will pay you stop. Grow up
Do one you dick Angus.
Reggie
I don’t think the Rice, Merino, Partey combo works in midfield. We have strength, but no pace or creativity.
Rice is a 6, he has been average this year as a RCM. I think that we can play 2 of the 3, but not all 3 or Rice, Partey, and Merino together in the midfield.
Either Trossard or Nwaneri should play until Odegaard returns so we have something resembling creativity from the midfield.
Red card all day, i think we will stick nick it and bag the three points. Only positive is we now have a good back defense and Saliba can adequately be replaced. COYG
*still nick it
Red card off its letter of the law everything not for city though. We’ll win and screw them
Time wasting is still a priority apparently and Arsenal are still the only 2 red cards that way. Liars. We win the league despite it and it’s oh so sweet. COYG! Onwards and upwards!
Commentary complaining we have the ball but haven’t challenged kepa wtf, we have 10 men? They’re scared we’re gonna win despite it all and we will
Shout out the aways fans. Always.
Take Marino off and bring Ethan Nwaneri
We need to inject pace now
At this point, l’m just tired of the referees being partially applying this so called letter of the law only when it’s against us. Now, just a minute ago, Semenyo fouls Declan Rice Trossard wants to take the free kick, but Semenyo keeps playing with the ball, clearly delaying the restart but as usual nothing is done. Hello goes without a yellow card
He got booked!!!!!!
Martinelli should have scored
Game over
Everyone commentary
excited, great goal but why do everyone hate us including the pgmol it’s weird.
That was great execution
Fine lines with we should have scored and Bournemouth have
Shout out the away fans again. Do your job, world is against us. Stand up
Gutted but not surprised not by a long way
Arteta gonna have to risk it all who cares if we lose 2 or 3 nil, throw jesus and nwaneri on.
It’s a pen not a red, they won’t give red because damage already done
Why a pen up other end never given
Well this season we are going to match the invincibles. GIFTS before Xmas.
City could be Invincibles this season
Sorry aren’t going to match the invincibles.
Excited commentary job completed outside football I am so fed up with corruption. There are more of us than them.
Always forever ❤️
The EPL is a corrupt league. The season is still long. We move
Although if Arsenal should win the title, the EPL won’t be that corrupt?
One of those days I guess. Fact is though, without Saka and Ode we look flat. On a good point though, Califiori looks better with every game. Overall though, we’re going to have to play much better if we want to challenge for the EPL.
Now it is a must win match against Liverpool
Hopefully Saka will be back for Liverpool
We truly miss Odegaard.
I think we miss 11 players more.
@Reggie
😂
Everyone going on it was clearly a red, I haven’t even seen a push, just the guy went down.
No Timber, no Saka, no Odergaard .. of course that’s going to have an impact, mostly caused by internationals.
Biggest problem today with players missing was Saliba.
Saliba did enough for Evanilson to do what he needed too. Saliba tugged him. Stonewall red.
Play acting, which we don’t do enough of and if we do get criticised, or not given.
Seems to me like you’re scrambling around for an excuse. Arsenal players do make costly mistakes, misjudgements whatever, from time to time. It’s not always “the other player”.
Not scrambling, how many times does Saka get hacked? And nothing from the refs, yet we are suffering g now for him being out yet we always get made to suffer for blowing on another player.
I don’t remember Saka being last man, getting fouled and not getting a red. When was that. Saka gets fouled on the wings and Saka gets us lots of free kicks. My problem with Saka is he never pressurises the defender on a yellow. He stops drawing fouls. Why?
Did I say last man etc etc? Saka gets what could be termed gbh yet gets nothing, they have been doing a bit better recently, yet even sky commentators have called out the amount of nasty tackles he gets, so how you don’t see it is confusing.
Did I say last man etc etc? Saka gets what could be termed gbh yet gets nothing, they have been doing a bit better recently, yet even sky commentators have called out the amount of nasty tackles he gets, so how you don’t see it is confusing….
It wasn’t play acting. It was an Arsenal player giving another player the chance to make the most of it. There was a foul and it was taken with glee.
Bit do we ever get those? I looked at the foul on Jesus in the penalty area., wasn’t even looked at, when the man not th3 ball was taken out.
There was no foul at all on Jesus.
That’s your opinion. As far as I’m concerned if you take out the ball rather than the man it’s a foul. And play acting is play acting, even worse when you’re doing it to get a man sent off.
Back to earth with a bump? It was never likely to be the walkover for Arsenal that some fans seemed to think but, in the circumstances, a fair result in the end.
Apart from Martinelli’s miss Arsenal didn’t really do much (even prior to the Saliba red). There’s no out and out striker on the bench to come on. While we all hope Jesus will do something most of us know he probably won’t unfortunately.
It’s only eight games in and perhaps one of the results will go at least some of our way tomorrow. That said, it’s going to be a long, hard season – I don’t think all of us quite realised that though, hopefully we all do now.
Corrupt league? 😂😂
Nwaneri is the Odegaard natural replacement we have in this team
Jesus is a first team player that lost his place to Kai – meaning he still has plenty of understanding and chemistry with the teammates than Sterling
If Nwaneri & Jesus started we wouldn’t have been this bland
We just have to start considering the guy if we fall into a crisis like this
I don’t know about Nwaneri who has done very well, but there’s no evidence at all (unfortunately) that Jesus would have added much.
We’re talking about a No. 9 who hasn’t scored a goal since January and only got 4 in 27 EPL games last season. Realistically, what are you expecting from him?
On the side, not upfront
Kai is our man upfront
But Jesus is better on the side than Sterling at the moment – just simply cos Sterling is still a new man in the team
Jesus did well in his cameo on the right today
Oh well. On to the next one…😒
The only one bright spot is that we definitely looked better when Ethan Nwnieri came on. The problem is that I can’t see MC or Liverpool losing against teams like Bournemouth, so we’ve probably messed up any chance of winning the PL.
They do but we do it more often.
Didn’t Liverpool lose to Nottingham ?
A serious contender don’t get swarmed by a weak team when they are man short.
Why ostracize a player when they make mistakes? By the same standard, should we keep Martinelli as he never scores on great chances as he did so again today.
I don’t get the rationale of Trossard out and Martinelli in in the summer.
What’s the deal with Arsenal and throw ins? It’s always frustrating for me watching Arsenal take a throw
Kiwior is not at our level
Even before the penalty- mistake he was making poor decisions about 70% of the time
He’s just a tiny-wee bit better than Holding
Did I say last man etc etc? Saka gets what could be termed gbh yet gets nothing, they have been doing a bit better recently, yet even sky commentators have called out the amount of nasty tackles he gets, so how you don’t see it is confusing.