Bournemouth vs Arsenal: Familiar faces set for return in tricky trip to south coast

Believe it or not, the international break was actually a welcome distraction for Arsenal.

In the last week or so before the two-week hiatus, the Gunners were starting to look a little threadbare in some key areas – not least in defence.

We had variously been without Ben White, Jurrien Timber, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko and David Raya at different times and there was more than a makeshift feel to some of the solutions the manager came up with to fill the gaps in that time.

Had the season continued as normal, I can help but feel like it might have started to act as a drag on our performances. There’s only so long, after all, that left backs can operate as right backs and it not be exploited. So it came as some relief then, to have two weeks off to allow some of our walking wounded to recover.

It even served as an opportunity for those on the cusp of exhaustion, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka especially, to take some time off, measly though it was.

All that adds up to a much healthier looking squad as we head into the weekend and a trip to Bournemouth. A lot of players we might have been without are now back in contention.

In his pre-match press conference, Mikel Arteta said the likes of White, Zinchenko and Timber were close to making their returns, while Saka and Havertz were in good shape too. That’s a big relief. Martin Odegaard, who has been out for a few months now, might even be on the cusp of a return to training himself.

The Cherries are not Manchester City but they have looked a much more capable side under Andoni Iraola. They are most certainly capable of causing us issues in areas affected by absences so to have a few more bodies back and in contention can only be a good thing.

We won’t know until 10 or 15 minutes into the match itself whether there is any post-international break drag on some of those who have played twice in the last few weeks but, hopefully, there will be enough gas in the tank to keep any drama to a minimum.

Though we have Liverpool just around the corner, I don’t expect much in the way of rotation from Arteta. If his favoured XI is available, I’m confident he will pick it and move from there. He is not really one prone to making rotations ahead of time and I think I’m starting to making my peace with that, even if I don’t necessarily like it.

Of the threat Bournemouth pose, Arteta said:

They are very well coached and they are super intense, really competitive and a clear idea as to how they want to do it. They should have had different results in my opinion, especially against the big teams and away from home. They’re going to be a big challenge and we’ll have to be at our best tomorrow.

And I think he is right, Bournemouth’s record this season isn’t particularly impressive but I don’t think those results are an accurate reflection of where they are as a side this season. They could very easily cause us headaches on Saturday because of the intensity with which they play. You can be sure they won’t allow us the sort of time and space we enjoyed in this fixture last season.

In the grand scheme of this campaign, however, this is a fixture we should be targetting for a win. It’s not the sort of game in which we can slacken the pace or drop points. Barring any aberrations, this has to be a win.