Arsenal vs Bournemouth
Arsenal are looking to go one better than their back-to-back second places and the new Premier League season is not so far away now; so Mikel Arteta is on to the serious business of getting his men ready.
The Gunners have five friendlies to come before the league starts, and they face some tough opponents with Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Olympique Lyonnais lying in wait. But first on Thursday, at the 27,000 capacity StubHub Center in California it’s Club Friendly: Arsenal vs Bournemouth.
Andoni Ariola’s Cherries have a busy pre-season too, with La Liga sides Rayo Vallecano and Girona FC, who finished third in the Primera Division last season, visiting the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth over the next couple of weeks. And this clash with Arsenal will be a good measure of where the Cherries stand at this early stage.
Talking points
Arteta can look at his squad players
In our SBOTOP report of Arsenal’s early season Mikel Arteta was bemoaning the slow start in the summer transfer window but he is starting to get nearer to strengthening his squad. Arsenal are working on the signing of Riccardo Calafiori and have some other irons in the fire but, in the meantime Arteta can take a closer look at some of the fringe players in his current group. He has taken 26 players to the USA but is missing the England trio of Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale, as well as William Saliba, David Raya and Gabriel Martinelli who are all still on holiday.
Arsenal have already played a behind closed doors friendly against Leyton Orient, goals from Gabriel Jesus and Emile Smith Rowe producing a 2-0 win and they are likely to start again against Bournemouth on Thursday. Skipper Martin Odegaard will play alongside Smith-Rowe in the midfield while Jesus is likely to make up a front three alongside Eddie Nketiah and Fabio Vieira who can play in Saka’s preferred right flank position.
Zabarnyi and Solanke face their admirers
It will be fascinating to see how two of the Cherries’ players fare in the Arsenal vs Bournemouth highlights, as the Gunners have been linked with two highly rated stars from the Vitality Stadium, a striker and a defender. Young centre back Illia Zabarnyi has recently pledged his future to Bournemouth, despite attention from Arsenal. The young Ukrainian defender had a superb debut campaign in the Premier League last term and is one of the first names on Ariola’s team sheet.
Arsenal watched Zabarnyi at Euro 2024 and were hoping to progress a deal, according to reports, but he has settled on the South Coast and the 21 year old Ukraine star has just penned a new five year contract to keep him at the Vitality Stadium until 2029. On signing the deal he said: “I’m so excited and so happy to be here. I’m really loving it, it’s a beautiful town and a really exciting project. Last season was important to me.”
Arsenal are also looking for a striker and, as well as tracking Brentford’s Ivan Toney, they have been linked with Dominic Solanke. The former Chelsea and Liverpool player scored 19 goals in the Premier League last term, his best season in the top flight, but the Cherries are confident of keeping him at the club where he has clearly been the happiest.
Bournemouth’s start of their pre-season didn’t exactly go to plan as they drew 1-1 with Wrexham in Santa Barbara as James Hill scored an own goal before Marco Senesi scored a leveller against the newly promoted League 1 side. With two tricky home games against Spanish opposition to come, the Cherries could do with winning one or two of their pre-season matches, having finished last season slowly, but they will have their work cut out against a highly focussed and richly talented set of Gunners.
History
While the Gunners finished last season in second place, three defeats to finish the 2023/24 campaign left the Cherries in 12th place and the last time the two teams met, goals from Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice have Arteta’s team a 3-0 win at the Emirates.
Arsenal have won 12 of the last 15 meetings, with the Cherries winning once and there have been two draws, while the Gunners have scored 38 goals to Bournemouth’s 12.
If this was a Premier League fixture the Arsenal vs Bournemouth betting odds would point to a Gunners victory; but in a friendly it’s all about fitness, formation planning and progress…I still think Arteta’s men will win though!
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