On 25th of November, we will see Bournemouth hosting Arsenal at Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, in hopes to bounce back from 2 consecutive defeats they suffered against Man United and Newcastle.
The home side, Bournemouth are currently 6th in the league, with a 6-2-4 record which is an excellent spot for them, after finishing last season at 12th place with an overall record of 11-11-16. Looking at Bournemouth last 5 games, they have won 2, drew 1 and lost their recent 2 matches. At home, however they have won 2, drew 2 and lost their most recent match against Manchester United (1:2). Looking at their most recent match against Newcastle, Bournemouth were 2 goals behind in 40′ after conceding a goal in 7′ and 40′. They answered with a goal of their own in 45’+6 which gave them a chance to come back in the 2nd half, but that did not happen. Despite having a 67% possession and 7 goal attempts, Bournemouth failed to score a goal against Newcastle. The match ended 2:1, which was a disappointing result for Bournemouth who were arguably a better side in that fixture.
Visiting team, Arsenal is currently at 5th spot in the EPL. They have been performing well in their recent 5 matches with a record of 2-3-0 (at least it seems so on the paper). In total this season, they are holding a 7-3-2 record only losing to Manchester City in the opening game of the season (0:2) and Chelsea in their 2nd match of the season (3:2). Their away record in the past 5 games is at 3-1-1, but I am not impressed by it, not one bit. A 2:3 win against Cardiff and a 1:2 win against Newcastle are not impressive. The 2:2 draw against Crystal Palace in their most recent away game even less so, as Crystal Palace is currently the worst team when it comes to home games this season (0-2-4). In Arsenal game against Wolves on 11th November, they ended with only a point which was disappointing, to say the least. In fact, they were trailing behind wolves for 70 minutes, who were close to winning their 5th game of the season. After the visiting side scored a goal in 13′ Arsenal just couldn’t find a way to score. Wolves even had 2x as many shots on goal (6) despite having only 28% possession and were the only team with shots on goal in the first half, with 26% possession. A late goal saved Arsenal from suffering their 3rd defeat in the season and to be fair, I can say Wolves were the team who deserved a win in that match. They showed much more despite having the ball at their feet for only 1/4 of the match. Final score: 1:1.
As said, Arsenal is not performing well, and even though they have won 3/5 away games, they were not impressive, excluding a 1:5 win against Fulham. We expect Bournemouth to put up a good fight as they did before at the home ground. A problem of Arsenal is letting too many goals in at their away games (9). When Cardiff can score 2, Fulham 1 and Crystal Palace score their only 2 goals against you there are clearly some issues with the defense. Bournemouth on the other side has scored 11 goals in home matches thus far, and I would not be surprised if they surprise Arsenal in this fixture with a win.
Prediction: Bournemouth +0.50 Asian Handicap
Odds: 1.92 Dafabet
