Week Three – Bournemouth vs Arsenal – Sport Grill

Bournemouth welcome Arsenal to the Vitality Stadium in Saturday Night Football.

Victory could see Bournemouth climb back into the top-half of the table, whereas a win would see Arsenal move top of the table until Sunday evening at minimum.

Team News

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Bournemouth could again be without striker, Dominic Solanke after he missed their defeat at Manchester City with an ankle injury.

Jordan Zemura (illness) could return but Ryan Fredericks (calf), Joe Rothwell (quad) and David Brooks (fitness) remain ruled out.

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta could hand Fabio Vieira his first start of the season after the midfielder missed their opening two matches with a foot injury.

Reiss Nelson (muscle) remains ruled out.

Stat Attack

• Bournemouth have claimed just five points from 10 previous Premier League meetings against Arsenal (W1, D2, L7).
• Arsenal are unbeaten in four of their five previous Premier League visits to Bournemouth (W2, D2, L1).
• Only four players who started Arsenal’s last league visit to Bournemouth in December 2019 still remain at the club – Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, Reiss Nelson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
• Scott Parker’s Cherries have kept clean sheets in their last three matches at home (W3), during which they scored four goals without conceding.
• Gabriel Jesus has been involved in four of Arsenal’s six league goals in their opening two matches, with two goals and assists apiece.

Prediction

Getting anything away at Man City was always an impossible task for Bournemouth who were completely defensively outclassed from start to finish, although poor passes were ultimately crucial to their defeat despite Mark Travers’ excellent goalkeeping.

Arsenal meanwhile were absolutely brilliant in their home win over Leicester with fantastic energy and intensity in clinical attacking play, complete with great reactions to immediately hit back after conceding from small defensive errors.

Now if Mikel Arteta’s Gunners turn up and deliver another high-quality performance, I don’t see Bournemouth standing a chance unless they repeat last weekend’s defensive tactics but better as this should be a relatively easy away win.

Prediction: Bournemouth 0-3 Arsenal