AFC Bournemouth are back in Premier League action this weekend as they welcome Arsenal to the Vitality Stadium. The Cherries remain winless in the Premier League and will be hoping to put three points on the board this weekend.
It won’t be an easy task however, Arsenal currently sit on 14 points, leaving them 5th in the table, level with bitter North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The Gunners are yet to taste defeat in this Premier League season, a stat Bournemouth will be hoping to change this weekend.
The Cherries sit a lowly 17th in the Premier League table, with three draws leaving them with three points on the board, only sitting above the three newly promoted teams. Despite this looking bad on paper, Bournemouth’s fixtures at the start of the season were some of the most challenging the fixture schedule could throw at them and Cherries’ fans have been happy with the level of performance on the pitch, most notably taking a point from Brentford and Chelsea.
AFC Bournemouth got off the mark in the 2023/24 season with a win against Stoke City midweek, but the main talking point was a potential ankle injury to frontman, Dominic Solanke. Andoni Iraola spoke to the media, including Nerve Sport, on Friday morning where he confirmed Solanke didn’t train yesterday but it is too early to tell if he is available for the weekend. Later in the press conference, Iraola said Solanke will play against Everton “for sure” but also cited “the problem is we play tomorrow.” Sounds like it could be touch and go for Solanke tomorrow.
On Arsenal, Iraola said:
“Very good, they are powerful and control the game with long spells of possession. They have strong players such as Rice and Havertz and they will be difficult opponents.”
Tyler Adams made his Bournemouth debut in the week, coming off the bench in the 70th minute against Stoke City. When asked by Nerve Sport if he could be in line for a starting spot this weekend, Iraola replied:
“We have to see how he feels today. He played his first minutes after a long time out so we have to be sure he is feeling ok and training with the team because he hasn’t been training with the team a lot.
We have to see how he does and make decisions from there. We can’t forget he is coming from a long injury, so I don’t expect him to be 100% from day one.”
Before Brighton, Iraola said his team needed to improve offensively from set pieces. They then scored two goals from set-pieces in the midweek game against Stoke City. Nerve sport asked him how pleasing this must be:
“I think [set piece goals] are extra points so for me they are very important, and we scored two against Stoke so let’s hope we continue in the Premier League because they are very important.”
Finally, the role of the fans in big games such as these is often made bigger, Iraola was asked by Nerve Sport about the role the Red Army can play this weekend:
“We have a big advantage. In the second half against Chelsea we created a really good momentum. We need the fans. Some moments in the game will be really hard, we’ll need to press, take the ball, recover and continue to do these things. We have to keep going and the help from the supporters is really good.”
AFC Bournemouth vs Arsenal kicks off at 3pm on Saturday and you can follow updates live on Nerve Sport Twitter and across our website.