“It’s All about Now; It’s about Bournemouth…” Arsenal Preview and Line-up

TotalArsenal

So it is Bournemouth tomorrow and possibly another banana skin in waiting. We have injuries and it is all quite unclear who will be available for tomorrow. Injuries are of course part of the game but the biggest worry is always losing multiple players for a key position. It looks like Declan will still be unfit and Partey is certainly out, and that means we may have to use Jorginho in the deeper midfield role once again. He may not be the fastest and is prone to a mistake or two in the game, but I still like the friendly and gifted Italian. We also have multiple injuries on the wings with Tross and Marti definitely out and Saka still a fitness-doubt. Salibaaah is a further fitness doubt. So all fun and games.

Hopefully one or two of the above will recover before the game, otherwise we will be a bit thin on the ground. I have a lot of respect for Bournemouth that just keeps punching above its weight 🏋️ . The home fans and players will love these games more than any other: nothing to lose but always capable of an upset; low expectations and it is always nice to ‘see the Arsenal’.

Predicted lineup:

Raya

Tomi-White-Big Gab-Zinch

Jorginho

The Ode – Havertz

Saka – Jesus – Nelson

Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners!!

Now, you know I am a big believer in OGAAT – One Game At A Time – and today Mikel summed up this approach better than I ever did:

“It’s about now. It’s about Bournemouth, and this is the most important game that we have now in the season. That’s it.”

Well, Mikel, I fecking love you.

By TotalArsenal.

66 thoughts on ““It’s All about Now; It’s about Bournemouth…” Arsenal Preview and Line-up”

  • I have a soft spot for the Cherries, too Total. Since last season when I won a draw for a ticket to our game there. A 3-0 win and the introduction of Big Will’s song, along with some great sight seeing in that charming town made for a memorable day. Glad to read that they are not hitting below the belt.. 😉

    Seems as tho’ Big Gab is out. We may see Kiwi and Ben in tandem which will be interesting.
    First up this weekend to’ are the All Blacks v Italy, with the haka in less than 30 minutes.

  • Thank you Total, OGAAT is a fine way to look at a season. If it can be achieved then the players could go into a game with a clear head with only the game they are about to play on their minds.

    Bournemouth have not won a game so far this season but that does not mean they can be counted out, they have the lowest capacity in the EPL at 11,307 but they are very partisan and make a lot of noise.

    Injuries can hit us hard so we really have to depend on our recruits to carry us through each game. Lets hope they have what it takes.

  • Glad you mentioned the rugby game Stuart, I will watch it while playing scrabble with my wife.
    I watched Europe beat the USA 6.5 games to 1.5 this morning – love the crowds in the Ryder cup , they are so passionate.

    I enjoy most sports although I’ve never taken a liking to basketball

  • Enjoy the games, GN5. My money is on the All Blacks by 20 points and Mrs GN5 by a similar margin…

  • Fine preview Total. Our injury list is starting to really grow, plus it is to key players, or all the players in key positions. But that is the sense in having a big enough squad of players with near equal talents, in every position.

    It will be exciting and hard in Bournemouth but we should pull through in the end, emerging with the 3 points.

  • Haha Stu, nice one. 🙂

    Always easier to review than to create; I am sure you know all about it as a sermon writer.

    Yes I remember you seeing the boys at Bournemouth. I think you even started the Saliba song there and then.

  • Not so, TA. I am back in Nigeria and watching the game now. Returned about two weeks ago.

  • Nice game.. Bournemouth started pretty well in trying to frustrate us.. looked better than most teams do against us early..
    Bad job on subs as usual by Arteta. 3 subs should have happened in early 60 minutes. Saka, Rice, Jesus.
    Such a team of character Saka and Øde giving the pen to Havertz. I was so worried he’d miss it. Arteta and Edu get credit for this culture.

  • An interesting day in the EPL today. Kai Havertz gets off the mark at Arsenal scoring his first goal for us from the spot. Nice touch by the players to first let him take the kick; and then mobbing him after he scored. Classy.

    In other news, the Manchester clubs both lost their games, unexpectedly. Just tells you there is still a long way to go. Another surprise was Brighton losing scandalously (6-1) to Villa and Everton losing at home to Luton Town.
    Spurs are playing against 9 man Liverpool, pressing to get the win.. Let’s hope it ends thod way.

    The EPL is full of surprises.

  • That’s right Eris. You know that people were giving up after a draw with spurs and talking doom about our currently undefeated team.

  • Well, that was worth a 2 am start. Especially Ben White White White’s cameo. Once again our fans did us proud, outsinging the opposition, and giving Kai the Waka waka treatment.
    Lens away and City without Rodri at home. Mouth-watering. You got a ticket for the City game, Kev?

  • No ticket for the City game I’m afraid Stu, it’s the hottest ticket in town.

    But I have been to the RC Lens stadium twice before and it’s a very British style ground with a passionate crowd of French Geordie type fans who create a great atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed my visits to Northern France, the food is great, the beer is cold and the women, oo la la… Wish I was going on Tuesday…

  • RC Lens have actually found a bit of form recently and will provide a stern test for Arsenal if we underestimate them, the PSV result shouldn’t lure us into a false sense of superiority because both Lens and Seville will be tough assignments.

  • Delighted for Havertz after his goal, he actually had a good game last Saturday, but of course the manic depressives and trolls you get online will try to demean the reaction of the Arsenal team to his goal, but I ignore those tossers, the reaction of our team was genuine and showed the great spirit we have in our squad…

  • Yes, Kev. Kai’s a great signing and will only get better. After having 5? 6? different managers over the three years he was at Chelski, he must be loving the stability and support at our place.
    Good warning about Racing Club de Lens (don’t you love that name), 15th in Ligue 1 but still a threat to anyone who might be complacent.
    Why did your post make me think of Sid James? 😉

  • Last weekends results:-

    1st Eris, OX10, PB & GN5 with 2/6 plus share of most correct predictions = 3 points
    5th Total & Kev with 1/6 = 1 point
    7th Stuart with 0/1 = 9 points.

    That was the lowest ever total scoring for a weekend!
    ”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

    For the season:-

    1st Total & Stuart with 35.00
    3rd PB with 33.33
    4th OX10 with 33.00
    5th Eris with 30.33
    6th GN5 with 30.00
    7th Kev with 23.33

    The new scoring method is really working as only 11.67 points separate the top from the bottom.
    ”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’

  • Next weekends selections:-

    Manchester United v Brentford *
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest *
    Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool *
    West Ham United v Newcastle United *
    Arsenal v Manchester City *
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 *

  • Manchester United v Brentford * H 3-1
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest * D 0-0
    Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool * A 1-3
    West Ham United v Newcastle United * A 1-2
    Arsenal v Manchester City * D 1-1
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 * H 2-0

  • Manchester United v Brentford * D (2-2)
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest * H (2-1)
    Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool * A (1-3)
    West Ham United v Newcastle United * A (1-2)
    Arsenal v Manchester City * H (2-1)
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 * H (2-1)

  • Nice work, as always, GN5. It was a tough set of fixtures to predict, it must be said. It is getting more tricky to guess how games pan out, it must be said.

    I notice you have issued 9 points to Stuart for coming 7th in the week’s ranking. I guess being a clergy does have its benefits. 😜

  • Of course, I know that was just a typo and you have not added it to the cumulative score. Just couldn’t resist. 😂

    Thomas Partey is back in training. Some good news, if the City game doesn’t come too soon.

  • Wow! Out for a duck and sharing the throne with Total. But for the VAR blunder I would have got a point for the ‘pool v spuds game. Who do I sue? I like your idea, Eris. Perhaps I could swop points for indulgences or a genuine relic?… 😇 GN5, how about it? Fancy a splinter from the cross? Or a hair from the beard of John the Baptist?
    Grand to see Thomas back in the squad for tomorrow morning in Lens.

    Manchester United v Brentford 2-0
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest 2-0
    Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool 1-1
    West Ham United v Newcastle United 1-1
    Arsenal v Manchester City 2-0
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 1-0

  • 22
    Raya
    18
    Tomiyasu
    2
    Saliba
    6
    Gabriel
    35
    Zinchenko
    41
    Rice
    8
    Odegaard (c)
    29
    Havertz
    7
    Saka
    19
    Trossard
    9
    Jesus

    Substitutes
    1
    Ramsdale
    31
    Hein
    4
    White
    15
    Kiwior
    17
    Cedric
    10
    Smith Rowe
    5
    Thomas
    20
    Jorginho
    21
    Vieira
    25
    Elneny
    24
    Nelson
    14
    Nketiah

  • Well that was not very good. Lens were solid and had more energy and physicality on the night. Some sloppy defending cost us and I think we deserved to lose. A humbling experience.

  • We were sloppy at times, didn’t defend well and didn’t take the few chances we created; but I am not too sure we deserved to lose, just on the balance of play.

    We dominated territorially and did have chances to ahead and out of sight, but we just seemed to hit our shots against the keeper or a defender on the goal line; we looked a bit distracted at times but still retained control for large portions of the game.

    What we needed today was a fit Saka and some risk takers. We seemed to prefer the safe pass rather than risk losing possession with an eye of the needle pass or accurate ball over the top (Zinchenko did play a couple of inaccurate balls over the top).
    Perhaps, the boys have eyes on the big game at the weekend. If we win all our home games and nick a point or two away, we should qualify from the group.

  • Really worried about Saka, though. Third game in a row that he’s had to limp off. Time to groom a heir to that role.

  • I felt that we had the game well under control and looked to set to win yet another away game keeping another clean sheet – and then maybe complacency set in, we got sloppy and after silencing the crowd our sloppiness woke them up and they didn’t shut up after that….

    Arteta seems to have a Wenger-like issue with european football and we lose games in a stupid and almosg amateurish manner under him as we often did under Arsene

  • I hope that this is a one-off but it reminds me of how we blew it under Mikel in the Europa. 

    Maybe, Tactically, Mikel isn’t as sharp as we’d like to think he is, he’s still young but I’m not sure that anyone could use inexperience as an excuse anymore. Nobody prepares like him so I can’t imagine that our players are going out half-cooked?

    Dogmatism could be the issue with him as it was with Arsene?

  • Man United vs Brentford….2-1
    C Palace vs Nottm Forest..2-1
    Brighton vs Liverpool…….. 1-2
    West Ham vs Newcastle… 1-2
    Arsenal vs Man City……….. 1-1
    Eintracht vs Heidenheim… 2-1

  • Some of Arteta’s substitutions made me scratch my head, Vieira does not play well on the right flank, why doesn’t that stick in his brain?
    Vieira has played some of his best football for us in the half-space on the left, inside left, why not move Havertz to centre forward (if you desperately want to leave him on) and put Jesus wide right and play Vieira as inside left (if you so want to bring him on?)

    We missed Ben White on the right – I do wonder if he would have got tighter to the first Lens goal scorer as both Tomiyasu and Rice reacted too late to the danger?

  • I lost my IT connection after 35 minutes so I can only guess at the 2nd half, we did have some chances but tbh it wasn’t our night, the luck was with Lens and deserted us.
    Nketiah, ESR and Nelson added some urgency to our play but if we are as lackadaisical again on Sunday we’ll get our arses kicked.

    I’m not confident at all.
    Offer me a draw now for Sunday and I’d snap your hand off.

  • Mostly agree with your submissions, Kev. Let it be clear; currently, Saka’s closest replacement is Nelson, not Vieira. I was rather surprised when Arteta gave our young Portuguese the nod that time.
    You put it well when you say the luck deserted us and favoured them. For me, they scored with the two clear chances they got while we fluffed our lines (or their keeper was like a Ball magnet of some sort) when we had ours.

    Not sure Ben White may have done better, given the same circumstances.. Raya simply didn’t kick that ball long enough and it was easily intercepted by their forward on the left side. He put in a cross and before we could keep up, he laid it off for Thomasson to slot in..

    Now, we can keep the focus for the game against Sunday an hope Saka is back fit by then. I recommend a midfield pairing of Partey and Rice, no Havertz, for that day. We will be okay.

  • Eris, unlikely to see Partey come straight back from injury and into the starting XI also Havertz will start. Disappointed not to see Jesus and Kai linking up better yesterday, it seems that everything goes through Saka and that’s not healthy.

    Maybe Benny is carrying a slight knock and Arteta was protecting him for Man City although he didn’t protect Bakayo? 

    Yesterday is the kind of game where you want to see both Vieira and Havertz show something extra, you know ‘my team mates are struggling so I’m going to step up’ but no, they just added to the funk.

  • It would have been nice to see Nelson start yesterday and Saka have a rest, Bakayo could have still come on, but Arteta showed his inner-caution and unlike Pep didn’t trust his squad. Mikel certainly hasn’t learnt how to rotate his squad from and how his teacher does….

  • Maybe, Mikel feels the pressure to win things before he can assume such luxury. He is at a stage where he needs to return the trust of the owners in trophies. Once he’s proved himself, I expect he would experiment more and rotate the squad more often.

  • We lost our first game and the season is young, so no big conclusions from me. Bad day at the office, and Saka is our important attacker is something we have known for a long time. Tomiyasu was my player of the match. White on left and Tomiyasu on the right seems to make sense v Citeh as Zinch was pretty woeful on Tuesday.

    Bring on the blue Oilers!

  • Tommy Cooper – I got a nice compliment on my driving today. Somebody left a note on my windscreen saying “Parking Fine”

  • Manchester United v Brentford * 3-1
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest * 2-1
    Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool * 2-2
    West Ham United v Newcastle United * 1-1
    Arsenal v Manchester City * 1-1
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 *2-1

  • Oh, boy. I could have sworn I had posted my predictions on here, GN5. Well, here goes (hope I recall my intended picks) :

    Manc United v Brentford * 2-1
    Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest * 1-1
    Brighton & H A v Liverpool * 2-1
    West Ham United v Newcastle United * 2-1
    Arsenal v Manchester City * 2-1
    Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Heidenheim 1846 * 1-1

  • Another Tommy Cooper:-

    I had a ploughman’s lunch the other day.
    He wasn’t very happy.

  • How do we feel about the big match? I don’t have a strong vision of what to expect this time. I hope it will be at least as good as the community shield performance, which I thought was mature, playing within ourselves. No fear, and not overly excited either. I hope they keep some lessons from that match.
    That or better and we’ll be fine going forward with the season. It would settle our young players.

  • Jnyc on that last comment. Am I the only person being dicked around by this WordPress? It was enough trouble signing up last week.., user name taken, password like national security level…. What are the rules to post a simple comment from the same browser? Annoying.

  • Similar issue Jync, It used to be so simple now we have to go through a very annoying process to post. Somehow I seem to have conquered it – but still hit and miss.

  • To comment, you should
    A) write comment in comment box

    B) click on blue envelope symbol, or F if you use Facebook

    C) use the email that your device is registered with

    D) Then press ‘reply’

  • Ah, mercy, mercy, mercy. I have emerged from the rabbit hole back into the light that is BK. Along with a strange array of numbers and letters after my name, picked up along the tedious technical journey. 806? 801 makes sense to me being a big Roxy Music fan (who remembers Phil Manzanera’s exploits outside of Roxy). Respect to anyone who can tell me why 801 were so named…

    Onto tomorrows early Southern Hemisphere hours… Tantalising, as is every Arsenal game, but even more so than usual with the prospect of finally seeing the double pivot of Thomas and Declan in tandem. They can boss a Rodri less midfield and if our wing wonders are fit to play, then I can see my 2-0 score line prediction fulfilled.
    Both ends burning, boys…

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