It’s another home game, at 3:00 p.m., this time we’re up against Bournemouth.
After the midweek game over Everton, which hopefully cleared away the cobwebs caused by some of the previous home games, confidence should be high for this one. However, you take things for granted at your peril in the Premier League, and we know that teams that fight hard to avoid relegation are often hard to beat. At the very least, you would expect that from today’s opposition.
In terms of team news on our side, there is some doubt about Eddie Nketiah, who looked to compound an ongoing problem late in the game on Wednesday. Mikel Arteta said yesterday:
We’re evaluating him and it’s a bit uncertain what’s going to happen to him, to be honest. Let’s see and keep the options open. He’s very positive about it, so I hope he’s okay.
His absence, if it comes down to it, would be more of a bench problem than a starting eleven problem, because after two good games up there, there is no reason for Leandro Trossard to lose his place. It could be a problem later in the game if we need or want to change something. Arteta may have to put on his thinking cap there.
I imagine we will see Thomas Partey back in midfield. At home, and after an influential performance in the second half, this is the kind of game you imagine helps us control. That said, Jorginho’s arrival is looking more and more cunning. If we’re winning this afternoon and Partey can be out in 70 minutes or so, he’ll help take the strain off a player who’s had an injury recently and has been a bit injury prone. Then he can use Jorginho for the Europa League game midweek, leaving Partey fresh for the trip to Fulham next weekend.
Other than that, I don’t think it will change anything in the starting XI, and again taking nothing for granted, if we can get into a comfortable position, there may be more minutes for Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira etc. However, we have to get there first.
The coach was asked yesterday if his team had reached its full potential or if there was much more to come:
There is much more to come. We can do much better in many aspects of the game, and we still have players with immense potential for individual and collective growth, and also as a club there are many things we can do much better. That’s the goal: we have to really look for that excellence and professionalism and try to hire the best people and always have the right mindset to reach that level.
Games like today’s are part of that process. There are all kinds of challenges in this league. There is quality above, but such is the financial strength of most clubs, there is quality below. You have to see all opponents as dangerous, and I’m sure Arteta will insist on the message that there are no easy games and that we will have to work hard to play at our best today.
Hopefully we can do that, and Man City playing before us could be helpful. I hope they turn around Newcastle so the gap will be reduced to just 2 points. It’s not like there’s a lack of concentration anyway, but that’ll definitely cheer everyone up before we hit the field later.
This is another game not on TV in the UK (although it is here in Ireland), so if you’re struggling to find coverage, join us on the live blog for text communications, goal clips and chat. Our Patreon preview podcast is available to everyone now (on Patreon and in the main podcast feed), and there’s also helpful information about streams, etc. We’ll have all the post-game coverage, player ratings and more on Arseblog News.
I’ll leave it there for now, see you later for the game.
Let’s go Arsenal!
