We’ll look to open up a four-point gap at the top of the Premier League when Bournemouth come to town on Saturday for our latest must-win match as the title run-in goes down to the wire.
The omens for a fourth-successive three-point haul are good given we have won all of our seven home matches against the Cherries in history, and have only ever tasted defeat at their expense once in 15 matches anywhere. But as last season showed when we edged a 3-2 thriller after falling two goals behind, we’ll have to battle hard to earn the right to sit top of the table for another week.
Andoni Iraola has built a talented side that is in-form, confident and on track to record their best-ever Premier League campaign. With Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City playing on Saturday evening against Wolves, Mikel Arteta will be hoping he is the Spaniard smiling most come the end of another pivotal day in the championship chase.
Cherries pick up after poor start
Despite beginning the season without a win in their first nine league matches and new boss Iraola already under severe pressure, the Cherries have since amassed 45 points, with only the current top four claiming more in that time.
Spearheaded by the goals of Dominic Solanke, who has 20 in all competitions, a great run of seven wins from nine leading up to the new year saw them haul themselves away from danger, but that was undone by a winless seven-game streak bringing them into March. However six wins have come from their last 10 to leave them as one of the most in-form sides in the division.
Last weekend’s 3-0 success against Brighton & Hove Albion saw them break their record Premier League points tally, moving them to 48 and a spot in the top half of the table. They are also one short of beating their previous high of 13 top-flight wins in a campaign, as Iraola proves that patience pays off.
What the managers say
Arteta: “We know we’re going to have to earn it again tomorrow. It’s going to be a really tough match but the team is ready. You need that [resilience] at any stage, but now obviously with what is there to win, we know that we’re going to have to win games in different ways, and that can be one. Hopefully tomorrow it’s not that, but if it has to be to win it, it’s welcome.
“I have a different game in my head for tomorrow [than last season's win] but we are going to have to perform really well tomorrow and be our best. If we do that, we have a really good chance of winning.” - read every word from Mikel’s pre-match press conference
Iraola: “We know the narrative of the game, we’ll be quite thin again, we have some important players out, but I also think we are in a good place; we want to finish strong.
“Knowing all the numbers and the game we played against them [earlier in the season]; they beat us and it was easy for them, it was the game we felt furthest from the opposition. But I think we are stronger now. I think we have improved and I hope we can give them a good game.”
Team news
Arteta has virtually a fully fit squad to select from, as Jurrien Timber continues to edge closer to a first-team return after featuring in his second under-21s match in a row, playing 60 minutes against Liverpool last weekend.
As for the visitors, Antoine Semenyo was stretched off with a knee injury in stoppage time against Brighton but will be fit enough to remain in the squad, while Ukrainian centre-back Illia Zabarnyi has recovered from the illness that saw him miss his first minutes of the season in that game.
Luis Sinisterra and Marcus Tavernier have hamstring issues that could rule them out of the final few matches, and Milos Kerkez is suspended after picking up a straight red card against Wolves. Also out are Romain Faivre (hamstring), Tyler Adams (back), Chris Mepham (illness) and Ryan Fredericks (calf), but they have rarely featured under Iraola this term.
Talking tactics
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Iraola started with a twin strikeforce against Brighton, but I expect them to revert to their usual 4-2-3-1. They are a counter-attacking outfit happy to go from back to front with one pass, and Everton are the only top-flight team to average more long passes per 90 minutes. When we are on the front foot, the visitors could be at their most dangerous.
On the ball they fly forward at pace and lead the Premier League rankings for shots from fast breaks, registering nine more efforts from those situations than any other side. They have also scored an impressive seven goals from high turnovers in 2023/24, and in general they create plenty of chances, with their tally of 385 eclipsing the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Manchester United.
Off the ball they are industrious and aggressive. No-one has made more fouls than Iraola’s men, who love to close down opponents in packs, and Liverpool are the only outfit to regain possession more often than the Cherries inside the middle third, where the likes of Ryan Christie [above] and Lewis Cook are excellent at knocking opponents out of their stride.
However Bournemouth do leak goals, shipping three or more in 10 of their 35 matches. Going away to the strongest teams in the division has sometimes been problematic. They scored in each of their trips to the current top five, but the aggregate scoreline from those matches is 15-4.
Facts and stats
We have won all six of our home Premier League matches against Bournemouth, and only played more home games against Stoke City while maintaining a 100 per cent record (10/10).
The Cherries have only picked up five points in 13 league matches against us and have never kept a clean sheet.
We have scored a league-high 85 goals in our 35 Premier League games, and our average of 2.4 goals-per-game is our highest across a single campaign since 1934/35, when we scored 115 goals in 42 matches (2.7 per game).
Bournemouth have won 1-0 at Wolves and 3-0 against Brighton in their last two games – never before have they won three consecutive top-flight games without conceding.
We have recorded the biggest positive difference between our goals and expected goals by any side in both of the last two Premier League seasons: +15.4 this season (85 goals from 69.6 xG), and +15.7 last term (88 goals from 72.3 xG). In this time our difference of 31.1 between goals (173) and xG (141.9) is the largest of any side in Europe’s big-five leagues.
We have scored 22 set-piece goals in the Premier League this season (excluding penalties), with 16 coming from corners, both the outright most in the division. No side has ever scored more goals from corners in a single campaign in the competition’s history.
Bournemouth have won just two of their 12 Premier League games in London since the start of last season (D3 L7).
Kai Havertz has been involved in 13 goals in his last 11 league games, scoring eight and assisting five.
Bukayo Saka has scored 15 goals and assisted nine more in the Premier League this season. He could become only the second Arsenal player to register double figures for both goals and assists in consecutive Premier League campaigns (14G 11A last term) after Dennis Bergkamp in 1997/98 and 1998/99.
Justin Kluivert has registered as many goal involvements in his last six Premier League games (3 goals, 1 assist) as he had in his first 23 in the competition.
Match officials
Having waited for another Arsenal game for most of the season, David Coote has been handed two in quick succession having taken charge of our loss against Aston Villa three weeks ago. He was the man who dismissed Takehiro Tomiyasu at Crystal Palace during our win at Selhurst Park back in August.
Bournemouth have recorded a win, a draw and a loss under his watch this term, with the last seeing them claim victory at Burnley back in March. Coote hasn’t awarded a penalty or sent a player off in any of his last 13 matches in all competitions.
Referee: David Coote
Assistants: Tim Wood, Mark Scholes
Fourth official: Darren England
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Stuart Burt
Previous visits from Bournemouth
We have won all seven of our home games against Bournemouth by an aggregate scoreline of 20-4, although that record was put under severe threat last season. Philip Billing netted after nine seconds and Marcos Sanesi doubled the lead, however strikes from Thomas Partey and Ben White pulled us level before Reiss Nelson’s belter won it in the 96th minute.
That had been the first time the Cherries had appeared at Emirates Stadium since October 2019, when David Luiz’s first Gunners goal saw us claim a 1-0 victory.
The previous February we recorded a 5-1 success thanks to goals from Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Laurent Koscielny, Pierre-Emerick Aubayeng and Alexandre Lacazette, while there were 3-0 and 3-1 wins in the previous two campaigns.
Watch highlights of four of our best wins against Bournemouth
Live coverage
For all the best build-up for the big game, Nicole Holliday and Adrian Clarke will be live on Arsenal.com and the official app with our matchday show. They will be joined by a huge host of guests including musicians Mabel and Shygirl who will drop by to talk about their new single, with rapper Chip also chatting all-things Gunners.
Clive Palmer and Tim Stillman from the Arsenal Vision podcast give their views on the game, poet Hak Baker tells us how he helped build the hype for our trip to Manchester City and our Croatian supporters club will add an international flavour to the show.
Then when the action gets underway, Dan Roebuck and Perry Groves will provide live commentary to keep you informed with all the on-field events.
You can also find out which broadcasters will be showing the action live wherever you are in the world
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