Arsenal are back in Premier League action at last, taking on Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this evening.
Here are the official line-ups.
Bournemouth: Kepa, Kerkez, Cook, Senesi, Scott, Evanilson, Dango, Tavernier, Araujo, Semenyo, Zabarnyi
Subs: Travers, Huijsen, Brooks, Christie, Adams, Smith, Sinisterra, Kluivert, Unal
Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Merino, Trossard, Sterling, Havertz
Subs: Setford, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Jorginho, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Martinelli, Kabia, Jesus
Saka needed the rest! Glad to see Ben at RB. What’s up with Timber?
3 points incoming! COYG!
Slightly more worrying i think. Saka would’ve had a week and a half’s rest given he limped off in England’s game last Wednesday. So there doesn’t seem any need to rest him.
Bit nervous about today. Still not convinced on Sterling. Prove me wrong Raheem!!
COYG!!!
I’d say this is the type of exclusions we should be able to make if we’re serious about competing for title. You’d think we have enough to beat Bournemouth without him, he needs a rest either way me thinks.
He doesn’t need a rest he plays well every game. You never saw Messi or Ronaldo take a rest. He’s injured. If he wasn’t he would start.
He is injured not rested
Great to see White back, hope Timber isn’t out long, but we have a solid back four with Kiwior in reserve and Zinchenko available as well. In the attack we have some punch with Martinelli, Jesus and Nwaneri on the bench so even without Saka and Odegaard we should be good.
Amen to that I say
Please just win.
Timber?
Strong team on paper. Would love to see Sterling make a good impact. Bench looks strong as well. And still some players to come back and make the matchday squad even stronger. At full strength this is a squad to be reckoned with.
I think this will be a very big game for Sterling – it’s his first time playing a full game for the Arsenal first XI – it’s always difficult playing in a rotated side full of kids so I back him to impress today.
He started against Southampton the last time we played.
Hoping he has a great impact today too.
But this is not his first start for Arsenal in the PL.
Haha true I had completely forgotten about that, thank you for the reminder!
I’m happy with the selection. If that’s not enough to win against Bournemouth then we don’t have squad depth to win the league
Can Sterling play defense? Can he track back? I remain unconvinced and worry for whoever has to play behind him today
I know Martinelli plays a role in the defense but really with that back four and the physicality of Merino, Rice and Partey ahead of them, then surely a player like Sterling can be ‘carried’ defensively.
I hope he’s a bit more “clued into” our way of playing. I was nervous when he last played as he seemed a bit lost
He spent a lot of time looking lost and looking for help from the ref- seems contradictory to what we were told when he signed that he wouldn’t require much time to adapt. If we sign him permanently I worry for our long term recruitment strategy.
Totally agree, but we have to give him time to adjust. If u remember Havertz was the same early on, had no clue with our tactics and look at him now. I think we will see the best from Sterling in the 2nd half of the season.
I like him better from the right. I think he will try, but BW is there for a reason. This is why MA was so desperate to have a proper RB this weekend.
I don’t much about merino but I thought he was more of a deep lying midfielder. Surprised to see him with rice and partey as a 3. Maybe I’m wrong though
What a physical midfield and defence.
Can’t say I’m thrilled to see Sterling but we have Nwaneri, Jesus and Martinelli on the bench, plus Zinny to change our approach.
COYG
Should control the midfield with ball winning and physicality, but concerned we will struggle creatively to break Bournemouth down. I think we may see Nwenari around the 60th minute.
Fully expecting Calafiori to be our most dangerous attacker today
Wrong wrong wrong
Rice + Merino interiors, Havertz CF and that back 4… hope B’mouth brought their teddies and blankies because it’s gonna be frightening levels of duel winning physicality out there. Good thing too because without Saka more of our creativity will have to come from those second balls and high regains.
Also this is the world debut of Declan Rice as Arsenal’s RCM. Grab your popcorn.
Aaaaaand I’m dead wrong
First 20mins look so disjointed. Too many players playing out of their natural position to accommodate others. 🙄
We will never win the league, f*** these bastards
What a fucking joke. There id no point watching this anymore. Fuck internationals and fuck var.
Shocking performance from every single player in that first half.
Got to half time. Can still win this.
Well for all my talk about physicality and second balls, we spent most of the first half working out how to play through them, and mostly not succeeding. I felt it was all too tentative, too careful. Merino was trusted with the Odegaard/RCM/second striker role in his first start for us (not what he came here to do). It didn’t look great but I wasn’t worried. Then the red card changed the game. Again. I don’t want to talk about it. Now we have to keep it tight while still doing enough to score. Thankfully we have some options on… Read more »
Try something NEW ffs. Like take one of the midfielders off and chuck Zinny in there. We need to gain some control to create chances.
That would be interesting. Zinchenko to add some of that technicality to midfield. Big call to actually do it though.
Very little creativity in that team from the start but it was a brainless pass to get Saliba sent off.
I don’t see anyone other than City winning the league again this season. We lose a couple of players in Odegaard and Saka and we have absolutely no fucking creativity…
This loss is on Arteta. The team was grossly imbalanced with the selection and the unfamiliar positions some players appeared to be shoehorned into.
Well, it’s early season. I doubt this loss is damaging. However, we really need to stop all these red cards! It’s killing our momentum!