Iraola: “Sometimes it’s best not to look at all the stats when you’re facing this kind of opposition. You should respect them, but maybe not that much, and try to focus on the things we can do to hurt them. We have created less against them. So last season we weren’t the team we wanted to be against them.”

Team news

Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli were all left out of their national team squads during the international break due to treatments, but Mikel Arteta said none of them suffered serious injuries.

Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber missed the Germany and Netherlands matches with problems, while Ben White was out for three weeks with a groin injury. Kai could be in line to play against Bournemouth.

Martin Odegaard (ankle), Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf), Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) and Kieran Tierney (hamstring) remain out.

Neto is not eligible to play against his parent club.

As for the hosts, Tyler Adams has been out for the entire season so far after undergoing back surgery. However, he is closing in on a return to the first team. The same goes for Milos Kerkez, who has been training this week and could be available on Saturday.

Talking tactics

Adrian Clarke: “Playing from the back is always dangerous when you come up against a team coached by Andoni Iraola. His playing style is built around a ferocious, well-organized pressing. This is why no one has had more chances for high turnovers (18) so far this season than Bournemouth, with the second highest number of high turnovers (75). Care will be needed in our own half.

“The Cherries work very hard all over the pitch, so this is a game where we have to work hard to win the physical battle. Rarely left out, they will test our resolve with their powerful approach.

“Mikel Arteta will also be aware of how quickly Iraola’s team can break on you. They travel up the pitch at an average speed of 2.16 meters per second, which is the fastest of all the top 20 sides, and Bournemouth are also joint third for direct attacks. The moment they win the ball back, they want to move it forward vertically and with speed.

“One weakness they have shown is that they are slow at the start of each half. They scored one and conceded four in the first half hour, and in the 15 minutes after half-time their goal difference is 0-3. Getting them cold will be one of our goals at the Vitality Stadium.

“Bournemouth’s star player is Antoine Semenyo. The 24-year-old already has three goals and an assist to his name, so he is bursting with confidence. He will either play on the right wing or as a striker up front, and from either role his strength, pace and quick feet are difficult to handle.

“Semenyo has made ten shots with his own ball this season and has also made six important passes from those dribbles. So it will be important for us to limit the space in which he has to operate. If we give the Cherries winger space to run into, he could hurt us.”

Facts and statistics

Bournemouth have lost eleven of their fourteen Premier League games against us. Since returning to the top flight in 2022, we have won all four meetings by an aggregate score of 13-2, scoring more than three goals each time.

We are unbeaten in all ten of our games in all competitions so far this season. We last had a longer unbeaten run from the start of a season in 2007/08 (first 21).

Since the start of the 2022/23 season, we have not lost any of their eight Premier League games straight after an international break (W6 D2), with each of their previous five games also coming away from home.

Kai Havertz has been involved in 20 goals in his last 21 Premier League appearances (13 goals, 7 assists) and has scored in each of his last four appearances in all competitions.

No player has more secondary assists (the pass before the assist) in the Premier League this season than Thomas Partey (3).

Raheem Sterling has been involved in 14 goals in just 13 Premier League appearances against Bournemouth. His ten goals are the most he has scored against an opponent in the competition. He is the highest scoring player against Bournemouth in the competition.

Bukayo Saka has scored 49 goals in the Premier League. At 23 years and 44 days old on the day of this match, he could become the youngest to score 50 for the club in the Premier League.

Only Barcelona’s Raphinha (32) has created more chances than Saka (27) in Europe’s five major leagues this season, while the Englishman leads the whole of Europe in big chances created (12) and assists (7).

Match officials

Rob Jones has been appointed to take charge of Saturday’s match. He has officiated eight games so far this season, handing out 44 yellow cards and three red cards.

He has not been involved in an Arsenal game since March, when he booked six players in our 2-1 win at home to Brentford.

Referee: Rob Jones
Assistants: Neil Davies, Simon Long
Fourth officer: Tim Robinson
VAR: Jarred Gillett
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard

Previous meetings

We have enjoyed two memorable away days at the Vitality Stadium since Bournemouth returned to the top flight in 2022/23, romping to a 4-0 success on the south coast last season thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz’s first for the club and Ben White.

The season before, Odegaard scored twice to secure a 3-0 victory, unforgettable thanks to William Saliba’s long-range strike, which was also his first Gunners goal. In fact, the Cherries have won just one of their seven home Premier League games against us, and that win came way back in January 2018.