Game week 35 of the Premier League continues and the race to close the books on this season is soon coming to an end. Today two of the top competitors for the desired Europe qualifying seats will go out for action in separate games, Aston Villa taking on Fulham and Arsenal welcoming Bournemouth to Emirates Stadium. I think we should focus on Arsenal and try to get my own personal stats back to order. My ambition is to always stay around 80% correct with all predictions, without securing this through working with low odds and high likelihoods. As you might have noticed, I rarely invest time or money in odds lower than 1,7. In my latest run, I have seen myself fallen short of that ambition and I need a game or two to get back on the 80% level. In some ways, the same goes for Arsenal, the team needs to get themselves back to their true level and inject some self-confidence back into the team before the real task, the return against PSG in the coming Champions League semi-finals. After a disappointing draw against Crystal Palace and a narrow loss against PSG, it is now time for a boost in the teams belief in their own abilities. What better way than a home win?
Of course, you have to be Arteta himself in order to fully know the full strategic play behind the scenes of these two games. But I think it would not be a wild guess to assume that while the main goal is overturning the table in Paris and find a way to the make it into the Champions League finals, an important part of that mission is to secure a home win today to raise the team spirits.
So the big question is really how Arteta will work with his squad, save the most desired pieces for the clash in Paris while also ensuring that hungry players are placed on the pitch to secure the win against Bournemouth. The injury list for tonight’s match is still a heavy burden for Arsenal with Calafiori, Havertz, Jesus, Jorginho, Magalhaes and Tomiauzy all out. Bournemouth on their hand miss Unal, Christie, Sinisterra which is a heavy set-down on their end.
But for once I don’t think the status of the squads will have the most important impact on the outcome as I believe that the mind play for the Arsenal coach will be a more defining factor. Looking at recent history, the last two seasons Arsenal have produced four wins out of four against Bournemouth all with at least three goals delivered from the London side. My confidence in Arsenal delivering a win once again is very high, but I am not as certain that they will continue the streak of more than three goals per match delivered.
Conclusion: Arsenal will win this one, and I think there will be a number of players who wants to show their coach that they should be given a chance to be in the return against PSG. But Bournemouth isw not a side you can just whisk away easily just because you want to. That said, Arsenal will not go too far below the recent history against their opponents.
There will be more than one home goal delivered. Hence, my prediction will be Arsenal to win.
