Bournemouth At Home Is Arsenal’s Biggest December Fixture

The festive period is almost upon us and with it comes some salivating matches. The home match over Christmas is the one I most look forward to and this year we welcome Premier League newcomers, AFC Bournemouth.

The Cherries are currently in the relegation mix but if this season has shown us anything so far it’s that nothing is for certain yet and anyone can beat anyone. Chelsea has recently fallen to Bournemouth and Chelsea beat us and we’re the only team to have downed Leicester. It’s an open league and despite their position Bournemouth are a dangerous side who could as easily challenge for Europe as they could get relegated.

Football is often about small margins and Bournemouth’s losses this season have come in mostly tight games where The Cherries were unfortunate to lose. They are easily underestimated and that usually leads to complacency and we all know what happens when Arsenal become complacent.

The boys from Dorset have had a fairytale rise to the Premier League, staving off liquidation 8 years ago to playing against some of the best players in the world week in week out this year. They’ve been smart about achieving it and haven’t exposed themselves the way other clubs do when desperately trying to reach to the extent of their grasp.

Bournemouth has trusted a brilliant young manager to get the best out of what they had and to wisely invest the money they received from promotion and the new sponsorship deal with Mansion Group, who own several online casinos like Casino.com and have a history of close ties with English Football Clubs, in improving the squad.

Eddie Howe doesn’t have a roster full of star names, nor has he overhauled his squad with cheap imports. He has trusted the players who have served him well and built upon the foundations they laid. Two summer signings, Mings and Gradel, sadly suffered ACL injuries as did Callum Wilson who bagged a hattrick in August. Young Wilson was even drawing admiring looks from Arsène Wenger before his injury. And in Matt Ritchie they have someone capable of pulling an assist out of the bag.

Arsenal are leagues ahead in terms of individual quality but with so many injuries that advantage is severely reduced. With a heavily depleted squad Arsenal must be doubly aware of being complacent against a bottom half side. We’ve seen already with West Brom and Norwich what can happen against teams you should sweep aside on paper and in many ways Bournemouth are a better side than Norwich.

Winning at home against Bournemouth isn’t a foregone conclusion nor is it something you would consider massively important in the grand scheme but losing would be. Beating Bournemouth on the 28^th is important because it allows us to end the year on a good note and head into January with some momentum.

January is going to be highly important for Arsenal because we welcome back a few players and it’s our last chance to strengthen the squad and put a finger on the title. The Festive fixtures are some of the most important of the season and Bournemouth will be fighting tooth and nail to come out of them with a slither of hope for staying up.