Bournemouth Fan View: Cherries must capitalise on Emirates unrest

This weekend my side Bournemouth are presented with their best ever chance to win at Arsenal in the club’s history. That’s not hyperbole, that’s fact.

Although my side have made a terrible start to this season – three games, three defeats – I’m still feeling optimistic about our trip to North London this weekend.

Have I gone mad? No. At least, I hope not. There are actually some very good reasons as to why I’m feeling less nervous than I usually would be when visiting the Emirates.

Bournemouth have found a new desire

The first is that we actually finally looked like the ‘proper’ Bournemouth against Manchester City in our last Premier League fixture.

Compared to our limp displays against West Bromwich Albion and Watford, everyone in the team looked faster, stronger, and more motivated. Yes, we lost – but in hugely heartbreaking and unfair fashion at the death.

I don’t think even the most stony of hearts could say we didn’t deserve a point – if only in terms of the effort our players put in against the most expensively assembled team in England. If we can play like that this weekend we’ll cause Arsenal more problems than they might be expecting.

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Gunners misfiring

Second is that Arsenal themselves have made a rather shaky start to the season. They’ve been battered by Liverpool and roughed up by Stoke City – with their only points coming from an unconvincing seven goal ding-dong against Leicester City.

The knives are therefore still firmly out for manager Arsene Wenger from the club’s fans. This is despite the fact that he will obviously only leave when he wants, and their moaning will not change the Arsenal board’s mind one iota.

With that in mind the mood amongst the Arsenal faithful at the ground will be interesting this Saturday. If we manage to take the lead the atmosphere could become more toxic than that of downtown Chernobyl.

If we start well this Saturday we could even end up rolling our way to another amazing result in the very recent history of AFC Bournemouth.

New formation could cause issues to a leaky defence

One thing other than a dodgy start that both sides share is a lack of clarity in terms of formation.

I have no idea this weekend whether Howe will stick with the 3-5-2 he tried when we played Manchester City (where we looked very good indeed), or whether he’ll revert to the 4-4-2 where we looked staid and listless against Watford and West Bromwich Albion. With possible injuries to Nathan Aké and Simon Francis it’s unclear whether we can play the former, but I hope we do. We looked far more dynamic and exciting in that set up.

In comparison, Arsenal have several players that don’t seem to fit well together – with Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil not convincing thus far. Then there’s big summer signing Alexandre Lacazette, who couldn’t even getting into the first eleven against Liverpool. They have, like us, not managed to settle on anything approaching a winning formula yet.

So this Saturday’s game could be a messy, bitty affair. Which would suit us down to the ground, especially if we start well.

We might never have a better chance to beat Arsenal, and I only hope our players can rise to the occasion.