Arsenal are now on a 16 game unbeaten run, but with four recent draws we are not looking quite so unbeatable at the moment. So we should be a little concerned ahead of our game against Bournemouth this weekend as the Cherries are only four points behind us in 6th place in the Premier League. A defeat will definitely make us look vulnerable to be overtaken. Unai Emery is well aware of the challenges ahead. He told Arsenal.com: “I think one of the characteristics of the Premier League is the fact every game is very demanding and you need to overcome that if you want to finish in the top four,”
“In terms of the difficulty of the teams, it’s not just the top teams but all of the teams in the league are very difficult because they all have good players and I think that’s what makes the Premier League as far as I know the most competitive league around.
“I think in comparison with the leagues in France and Spain, taking Spain for example, that was a league in which every team was very tricky and it made sure that you needed to know a lot about them. It meant that your preparation had to be spot on and it meant that your instructions to the team throughout all 90 minutes had to be very good.
“That was unlike France in a sense that PSG were so superior that the competitive aspect wasn’t so apparent, but it’s something I am rediscovering here in England and so in terms of my competitive level, I need that to be very high and I want to convey that to the players so that we get the best out of them.
“In terms of Bournemouth, that’s been my focus ever since the end of the Wolves game, I know that we are going to have to play at a very high level in order to get the three points because Bournemouth are doing some great work, they have some fantastic players. I think that most of all, they have that confidence at the moment which is making them a truly tough proposition.”
After so many draws an away game at Bournemouth will be a real test if we can keep pace with the Top Four and also give some daylight to the following pack. We cannot underestimate how important this game is to our season….
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What a good job Eddie Howe is doing at Bournemouth.Not only are they competitive but they also play football how it should be played.Howe is one of those coaches that seems to get the best from his players and they will be out there on Sunday believing they can beat us.This is no easy game.We need to be at it right from the start and be committed for the whole game.With the Spuds and Mancs to follow we must win this game.
Bournemouth have a car park right next to the ground.Cost for parking is £1.Can you find ANYWHERE in the UK with parking at that price let alone Football Parking?
Howe is having a good season just the way dyche had last season Buh that doesn’t make him a good Coach, what makes u a good coach is ur ability to remain consistent @ the top level for a long period of time with or without endless cash,like the likes of Wenger,Johan cruff,Alex Ferguson,arigo sachi etc!!!
So Cryuff and Ferguson didn’t have endless cash then?Are you serious?And do you not feel that for three seasons Howe has made Bournemouth an attractive and competitive team in the Premiership with a fraction of the spending power of most other Clubs?That in my mind makes Howe a very very good Manager.
I believe he said “with” or without endless cash, but the key word there is consistency, Howe is doing a good job,but just at the moment,we might not be saying the same thing about him this time next year.
I’m not worried about Bournemouth, because Wenger was usually able to defeat them
I’m sure Arsenal staffs have assessed Howe’s strategies. I think the data about the opponents is what made Wenger able to overcome poorer teams
If Wenger could defeat Bournemouth in several meetings, I believe Emery could do that too. I just hope they would not be too confident and learn from the Crystal Palace game
We lost there 2-1 last season & drew 3-3 the season before that! They’re a good team..ask Liverpool ?.
Really? I thought Wenger’s Arsenal dominated them in some meetings
I believe Emery has more experienced than Howe and he has better players
@ declan Wenger was arsenal manager for 22 years, the only team in English football with a superior head to head to arsenal during that period was man u, which means for 22 years Wenger dominated every English team bar man u, saying if Wenger could win Bourne mount Emery should win them is a total let down on our greatest manager, emry has never done anything yet to be in shoes of Wenger, let him first win a major trophy for us before we can even start comparing, our strength so far this season has bn our attacking players all assembled by Wenger, the way we talk shit about our legend here is rediculous,
Except Aubamayang, that was Ivan and Sven. Remember them going to Germany, all the pictures, and Wenger left out of the decision making? Wenger had nothing to do with bringing in Auba. The rest you have a point. The Walcott stealing a living, persisting with Ramsey, Giroud and no competition for ST didn’t work out well for the club.
Aubuneyang was Wenger’s last signing, and he flourished under him 2, that Wenger wasn’t physically present in Germany doesn’t mean he didn’t give his word for it, r u telling me that ghendouzi wasnt emry’s signing? Or r u saying it wasn’t klopp that brought aubumeyang to Germany? That is d double standard we talk about here, Walcott offered AFC over 100 goals ,I can’t recall the last time an English winger scored over 100 goals for his club side, giroud was the 3rd quickest to reach 50 goals for arsenal only behind henry and weighty, on several occasions he saved our blushes and for many years he gave his all to arsenal a great team player and a scorer of great goals, I have big respect for him, Ramsey remains one of the best scoring mildfielders in English football today, and he’s a player that doesn’t hide in big matches, his 2 goals in 2 cup finals will always prove the player he is for us, I just find out that all we do here is to abuse our players and our legends well u guys can continue, Buh it will be a shame for any one here to celebrate making a top four finish as a success, bcos I could remember vividly that Wenger was abused here for making the top 4, making the top 4 was actually a failure under Wenger!!
Well said. Well said. Well said.
While others waste our time writing hearsays and spill out the stuff that comes out of the rear end of donkeys.
You have reminded us of the facts that Arsene wrote into the history book our great club.
Well said.
I can see a Wenger debate coming pretty soon.Its about time.The last one was THREE DAYS AGO
Haha
news flash … football is a team sport against other teams … wenger was ahead of game in his first decade but struggled as new teams emerged first chelsea and man city so it became not about winning epl but staying in top 4, then spuds improved and lpool regained form and it became about playing in europe and staying in top 6 … now we can debate the various factors that led to this decline in fortunes but decline it was and yes ramsey is part of the explanation
The last 10 years was even the most difficult for Wenger,u have kroenke as owner ,u v got a massive debt to repay, u v got to sell ur best players without replacing them, u v got to slug it out with endless flow of cash like the Chelsea’s and man city’s of these world, yet HD still managed to give us champions league football ,3 fa cups and 3 community shields, well if u don’t c that as sucess definitely I don’t know what success means to u, its very easy to criticize and call names Buh I know its more difficult to manage difficult situations!!!
I agreed with everything you said up until the last statement…
“Buh it will be a shame for any one here to celebrate making a top four finish as a success, bcos I could remember vividly that Wenger was abused here for making the top 4, making the top 4 was actually a failure under Wenger!!”
I wouldn’t blame anyone for celebrating a top 4 finish at the moment,all thanks to Wenger. The reason fans were not satisfied with back to back 4th place finish was simply due to perceived stagnation and lack of progress over the years,but during Wenger’s last two years,we went some steps backwards making a top 4 finish this year considerable progress.
Why bother explaining this? For some people (Wengerites) finishing 4th was the ultimate victory. They didn’t care about the league title or anything else. When we finished 4th they probably went home and celebrated with their mates about how we would be playing Bayern in the champions league the next year and getting hammered 5-1 for the gazillionth time. Was Wenger’s job to win titles or finish 4th? I really don’t understand this AKB fixation on worshipping Wenger. As a WOB I can assure you all I support Emery. However, if he achieves top 4 and it becomes clear to me top 4 is all he is interested in I will be swiftly calling for his head! We are a big team and deserve to challenge for titles, not compete for top 4 with Tottenham!
Of course the last 2 years of Wenger’s era wasn’t one to be disired of, I also believed that contract situations to our biggest players and pressure from the press to an extent affected their performances, we v moved on no doubt, Buh talking ill of Wenger every other day here can’t add up, its double standard to give emry credit when we win and still abuse Wenger after a bad game, I think daz d trend here, when bellerin gives an assists ohh emry has improved him,when he failed to defend ohhh its bcos Wenger left emry with average players, daz d double standards I talk about here, Wenger is human, sure he made some mistakes Buh he was a massive influence on the way we evolved as a club and we must give him credit for that!
I reasoned with u bro
I can’t agree more!
Wenger is the greatest manager ever to grace Arsenal FC although he could do more, let Unai overtake him coz he has the opportunity. Let him win for us the Champions league!
A tough game….Ryan Fraser is one to watch!
Bournemouth aren’t to be taken lightly, as we know from the last couple of seasons!
If we have our shooting boots on I reckon there’ll be a lot of goals (both ends!)
Come on Arsenal… we need a win & a good performance, I’m fed up with draws now!!
OT
I am looking forward to see Boscieny in our next Europa league match
So am I-who is he,when did we buy him,what position does he play and how much did he cost?
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Sorry, who is Boscieny?
You mean you don’t know Declan?! ?
I have to assume he means Koscielny but cannot be sure. It is so frustrating when some have not an easily understandable English. It has also been with Emery too but he is slowly improving.
Callum Wilson has been excellent this season 6 goals and 7 assists
I always liked him, his first season coming up to the prem, I put him in my fantasy team. He looked like he was getting off to a flier, but then a horrible injury took him out for the whole season basically. I’m amazed bigger clubs haven’t snapped him up before he even played in the prem. He has that knack, the type people are hoping to see with Nketiah.
what about pablo fornals as a replacement for ramsey?
and hector herrera as a replacement for elneny?
When ur keeper has bn ur best player it doest show great strides,it simply shows weaknesses all over the pitch, we v only looked like a proper team in only 3 matches out of about 21 matches we v played, 2nd half performances against Fulham and lecieter city and the over hyped draw @ home against Liverpool, the rest we rode our lucks,how far we can continue with that i can’t tell, I hope we get the 3 points this weekend ,another poor outing will not do their confidence any good!
Uchman one of Wenger’s ass lickers, I need no soothsayer.
I bet he can taste it now,can’t you?
Daz a big insult to my person if u get to know me very well, I state facts no mata the situations, i hate injustice and double standards, we should learn to state facts and not fictions, Wenger was our greatest ever manager on and off the pitch the class and respect he brought to this club will remain a mirage to many ,to pull us through with d stadium dept without the club sliding sooo much even when don’t have a sugar daddy as owner will always be a success story on its own, let’s c how far Tottenham will go with their present situations!!!next time I will prefer u argue with facts than to call names!
Uchman-credit to you for your dignified reply.I am absolutely the opposite to you with your views on Wenger but I respect your opinions and I will look forward to proving my point to you in due course.
But let me tell you something.I do not know of a single supporter who did not love Arsene Wenger when he came to our Club.I can remember the scenes at Highbury when we clinched the title against Everton in1998.The joy and celebrations inside and outside the ground that day will always be in our history thanks to one man -Arsene Wenger.The memories continued.But not forever.
There are very valid reasons on why Wengers is loathed by so many fans.Perhaps one day an article headline will appear where the views of all can be debated.But this is not the time
I have big respect for u 2 @ Phil, although we v had diverse opinions on some issues especially on Wenger and iwobi Buh I still respect ur love and deep Knowledge of d club, in have never bn against any one criticising Wenger when necessary Buh I have always stood against abuse and blatant lies against our greatest ever manager , I was never kul with d purchase of sokratis and lichstinier in the first place Buh I can never abuse emry, abuse doesn’t give us a good image ,Buh constructive criticism with facts and figures will always be the way to go,
Yes I also respect all opinions on the Wenger years. To me it felt as though the wonderful early Wenger completely changed outlook, methods and almost all connected with how he previously managed and this happened increasingly after the 2006 Barca final. Effectively two different Wengers managed us over 22 years; the first wonderful , the second old fashioned and below par at the level we need and deserve. By 2008 I was calling for him to go. I pride myself on generally seeing things that are happening earlier than most others. For example , I called Walcott as a frail minded and lazy, timid player after a mere handful of games and was proven right , but only after his largely wasted decade in our shirt. I saw the waste of keeping the chronically injured Diaby far earlier than Wenger and so did many other fans too. I could see WENGERS INABILITY TO CHANGE HIS OLD METHODS AND HOW HE CLUNG TO THE PAST, even when more thrusting younger managers had shown the folly of refusing to keep up with the games new developments. People who refuse to change and to modernise in life end up as near dinosaurs. You see it in SOME old people who have insular attitudes to change and who are in essence still “low level” racists – though racism is ghastly and cannot ever truly be low level. Life changes, generally speaking for the better, though not always, I admit. I also knew perfectly well that Wenger was soon to be sacked and openly and publicly said so loud and clear when most Gooners refused to see the obvious signs. I am not especially bright BUT I am OBSERVANT and can accurately interprete what my eyes see and my ears hear. I called the obvious change from Jekyll to Hyde in Wenger and stand by my correct diagnosis which had completely finalised by 2010. Had the powers that be acted then we would be well ahead of where we are now. But c’est la vie! As a man he remained a terrific human being all the time, but his manager ability changed utterly from wonderful , through mediocrity, eventually becoming woeful. THE MORAL ? IF YOU REFUSE TO CHANGE, YOU REGRESS AND BECOME IRRELEVANT!
JF-Perfectly stayed as always.
The Headline topic was all about Bournemouth Away and here we are again with many posters bringing Wenger into the discussions.There is nothing wrong with this as far as I’m concerned because comparisons will ALWAYS be made.It is inevitable.Wenger achieved enormous things for Arsenal Football Club for a decade.After the 2006 CL Final we had a new ground to move into and pay for.Things changed overnight.Money was tight and players were sold.But still Wenger did enough to get us Champions League Football every season while having no money to compete.We won nothing but a top 4 place and secured the revenue from the CL.Was this enough?Absolutely not.
This is where I will finish as I will be here all day otherwise.Another time I believe
Well that is ur own personal opinion and u r entitled to it, are they factual? Never invtjis life,Wenger had a magical first 10 years with us , I still believed he could have won more league titles if the referees were a bit fair to us, the next 10 years was even the more challenging more difficult years for Wenger and I even c it as a more successful years than his first 10 years, working with a cash trapped AFC even when he had bigger offers to manage bigger clubs with bigger chances of winning more trophies and adding to his already impressive CV will remain evergreen in my heart, giving us champions league football while paying off the emirate debt and still have to compete with the new money bags in Chelsea and man city will remain a great achievement by Wenger, I can only rate that period a failure when u can conveniently tell me how many clubs with same or less budget than arsenal that actually did better than arsenal fc in that period, the only 3 clubs in English football that did better than AFC in that period were man u chelsea and man city, and behold all three operated with a different budget to arsenal, yeaa lecieter city won the league Buh daz a one off, I can only rate a team with a consistent record of great performances,we saw it with Blackburn rovers in 1995, we saw it with lille in France and Wolfsburg in Germany,, for Wenger to navigate those periods and still Gave us consistent champions league football will remain a great achievement for him, as for ur comments on walcot, they r blatant lies with no facts, walcot was one of our of better scorers for over 10 years, he doesn’t hide in games, he scored important goals for us, he scored against Barcelona,man u,severally against Chelsea,spuds,Liverpool etc ,he scored in cup finals and semi finals, he led a lot of come backs for us,he gave important assists, etc, walcot might not be our most talented Buh he was very efficient for us, , lingard sturtidge, even ox r all earning high in their verious clubs Buh none of them can boast of same productivity level as walcot,we shouldnt make lies to look like truths, diaby was a gamble that never worked out, daz life for u,sometimes things might not work out the way we expect it, does those littles challenges bellitle Wenger? Never in this world!!!!!! He remains our smartest and most successful manager till other wise proven!!
When we feared the worst, due to our defending, we were managing to pull through. The moment we gained expectations, with a worrying tie versus Liv – sandwiched in-between. That is when the wheels fell off, so to speak. We stayed unbeaten but drawing many games is sometimes worse than having an odd loss. Yes it is great to have a hard to beat formula. Those draws can be killers all the same, that is what happened in the season when we had an eight point gap on Liv in a Jan. We began drawing many games and Liv finally squeezed passed us, we missed the CL place and we haven’t yet made it back.
Another concern is how we cannot manage to take the rains in a first half performance. We need to correct that because the longer that goes on, it can only mean trouble.
I have no expectations v Bournemouth, there is a good chance that they (Bournemouth) will be leading at half time. I just hope that we can bring a high tempo performance, slow passing makes it very difficult for our players to shake off their markers, which makes putting players though – like running into a brick wall.
Thruth be told, Arsenal performances have been poor throughout this season. Throughout my life as an Arsenal fan, this is the first time I get so nervous watching our matches against supposedly smaller teams. I won’t be surprised if the Bournemouth game ends in a draw
No argument with these comments at all.We have not played well all season on a consistent basis but have still ground out results no matter how fortunate at times.I take that as a bonus during Enery’s early months but he will not get away with being so fortunate all the time.But we can’t deny the improvements within the team in terms of commitment,fitness and attitude.We have a resolve within the teams that makes us dig out results that we maybe didn’t deserve.So credit the Manager and the team for that.But there’s no denying the performances MUST improve.
Must win game. This will show if we keeping our focus and improving game by game. We need to keep consistency.
A clean sheet against that team will also be delightful.
We need to eradicate mistakes made in our game. 110% Focus is paramount. The extra 10% is for Xhaka, he needs it. Hope he can come good for the rest of the season.
Hope we can finish a November on a high.
I don’t think is a must win @ Patrick, Bournemouth has bn kul this season and they looked a compact team, I think we should be more worried about our performance level which haven’t bn up to scratch despite us having a good run of games, @ present we r not far from our realistic target which is a top 4 finish, good performances yields to good results and improves the confidence of players,there is no need to put much pressure on the guys, its a new era and a new beginning to them, we should underrate any team @ this point, Leno won’t always be on top of his game, the need to be more brave and proactive is key, I personally hope for a Victory, Buh deep inside me I know its a tricky game!!!