There’s still 11 league games to go, but they can move one step closer to that goal tonight with a home game against Bournemouth. While United have a tricky game away to Palace and Chelsea have to play at home to Spurs we have the opportunity to give ourselves a little breathing space ahead of two very tough games coming up. The trip to Wembley to play Spurs on Saturday is a massive game for us as is the home game with United a week later. Three points at home to Bournemouth tonight could give us a little bit of leeway in those games which we might just need considering we face Rennes twice either side of the United game too.
The chances of us catching Spurs to finish third are extremely remote, but I can’t help playing out the scenario in my head where we win tonight and away to them on Saturday while they lose to Chelsea tonight and suddenly we’re a point behind them with nine games to play. I know it’s a far fetched scenario and Arsenal are most likely to disappointment me, but I can’t help get my hopes up nonetheless. If it does come to pass I think the credit should go my way, but there should be no blame if it all goes horribly wrong. After all where would us football fans be if it wasn’t for hope.
Anyway back to the matter in hand and a game against a Bournemouth team who play good football and have proved difficult for us to beat in the past. They’re a different proposition away from home at the moment though and we’re up against a team who have lost their last eight away games and conceded 23 goals in the process. It surely has to be an opportunity for us to put a few goals on the board and continue to stay ahead of United and Chelsea.
Bournemouth are missing both Callum Wilson and David Brooks for this game and they have probably been their best players this season along with Ryan Fraser. While they will pose us some problems in defence they are there to be beaten and we need to make sure the three points are ours tonight. I mentioned how we have switched to a first half side in my preview of the Southampton game and so it proved to be, but I’d still like a few more 90 minute performances.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on the bench on Sunday so we can safely assume he will play from the start with Alexandre Lacazette probably starting too as he banned from the Europa League games. Henrikh Mkhitaryan seems to be in favour with the manager at the moment which means we should see him play too unless he is rested for Saturday with Mesut Ozil or Aaron Ramsey coming in instead. In midfield I wouldn't be surprised if Matteo Guendouzi came in with either Granit Xhaka or Lucas Torreira missing out.
With our defensive options still limited because of injuries I expect to see a back for with Nacho Monreal possibly switching with Sead Kolasinac while Stephan Lichsteiner will play on the other side once he's fit to play and Carl Jenkinson probably filling in if he isn't. It looks like we might actually have three fit central defenders to choose from and if so my preferred two would be Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathapoulos with Shkodran Mustafi for back up for the inevitable injury coming our way.
To be honest with the players we have available tonight should be a run of the mill three points without too many mishaps, but it has rarely been like that so far this season. It would be nice to tie the game up early on so a few players can get a bit of rest ahead ofa huge game on Saturday and a very busy schedule to follow it. I'll take three points whatever way they come though so we can move on to the next challenge.
With our defensive options still limited because of injuries I expect to see a back for with Nacho Monreal possibly switching with Sead Kolasinac while Stephan Lichsteiner will play on the other side once he's fit to play and Carl Jenkinson probably filling in if he isn't. It looks like we might actually have three fit central defenders to choose from and if so my preferred two would be Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathapoulos with Shkodran Mustafi for back up for the inevitable injury coming our way.
To be honest with the players we have available tonight should be a run of the mill three points without too many mishaps, but it has rarely been like that so far this season. It would be nice to tie the game up early on so a few players can get a bit of rest ahead ofa huge game on Saturday and a very busy schedule to follow it. I'll take three points whatever way they come though so we can move on to the next challenge.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment