Kerkez has been a stalwart in the Bournemouth defence this season, starting all seven league games and lasting the full 90 in five of them.

The Hungarian international has been reliable in the fouls market, sinning at least once in six out of those seven appearances, only missing out against Leicester when he was taken off with half an hour to go. Last season he averaged 1.14 fouls per 90 including at least one in over two thirds of his starts.

Bukayo Saka will be his counterpart on Saturday which tends to spell trouble for would-be defenders. Arsenal’s starboy is averaging over 2 fouls drawn per 90 this season, as did he in the previous league campaign, and will surely give Kerkez a hard time to say the least.

Havertz has been a revelation for Arsenal, particularly since beginning to play as a centre-forward midway through last season under Mikel Arteta.

The German forward has tested the opposition keeper at least twice in each of his last three, and at least once in the most recent five. Over the course of the league season he’s hit the target in six out of his seven matches.

It would be fair to assume that Bournemouth’s defence could get overrun and Arsenal will have plenty of chances on this occasion. Excluding matches against newly promoted opposition, The Cherries have conceded an average of 7.2 shots on target per 90. Given Havertz has had at least one shot on goal against the likes of PSG, Manchester CIty, Tottenham and the Netherlands already this season, Bournemouth shouldn’t offer too stern a test.

Arsenal’s set-piece tactics have become somewhat of a joke since Nicolas Jover’s arrival in August 2021 with The Gunners having scored a ridiculous 54 goals from set-pieces since then.

Gabriel’s presence in the box has contributed to a large portion of these and has rendered him the target man, making him fantastic value for a shot despite being a centre-back. He’s fired off at least one in six out of seven league matches, averaging an impressive 1.57 per game.

No centre-back in the league has accumulated more shots and remarkably Pedro Porro is the only defender to rack up more. Arsenal should get plenty of opportunities from set pieces, especially free-kicks if Bournemouth’s 14.3 fouls per 90 is anything to go off.

Senesi has been an important cog in Bournemouth’s high-fouling defence this season and there are plenty of reasons to suggest he’ll sin at least once.

Over the course of the season he’s averaged 1.85 per 90, being penalised at least once in all six of his games. Most recently he committed four fouls in Bournemouth’s disappointing defeat to Leicester.

He’s expected to come up against one of, if not both of, Havertz and Jesus, each of whom averaged over 1.5 fouls drawn per 90 last season. Given the amount of defending he’ll likely have to do on Saturday, it would be a surprise if he reversed the trend.

Given the respective starts to the seasons of these sides, Arsenal seem to be very generously priced at 1.65 to take three points.

The Gunners have won five of their seven league games this season, only dropping points in controversial fashion against Man CIty and Brighton due to red cards in each for delaying the restart.
Bournemouth on the other hand have lost three of their last four, only managing to defeat league-strugglers, Southampton.

Looking at the head-to-head form, Arsenal have reigned supreme in each of their last five clashes with Bournemouth, confidently triumphing 3-0 at home and 4-0 away last season.

Lewis Cook has been in fine fouling form, averaging 2.60 fouls per 90 so far this season and hitting the threshold in five out of seven attempts. In the entirety of the Bournemouth squad, only Justin Kluivert tops this average.

Most recently, Lewis Cook sinned three times against a weak Leicester side and by way of comparison, he could have much more to deal with on Saturday.

He’s likely to face off with Havertz who averaged 1.50 fouls drawn per 90 last season including three last time he played against Bournemouth. It’s also worth mentioning that Cook himself sinned twice the last time Bournemouth hosted The Gunners.

No Arsenal player can boast more than Saka’s eleven shots on target this season and we think he’s been massively overpriced at 2.8 to fire off two.

It’s a feat he’s managed in four out of his six league games (50+ minutes), only failing to do so in tricky clashes with Aston Villa and Tottenham. Overall he’s averaging 1.74 per 90 which is pretty impressive given Arsenal have played the aforementioned fair in addition to Man City.

Last season Saka tested the keeper twice in both matches against Bournemouth and there’s little reason to suggest he won’t be able to on this occasion. As mentioned earlier, excluding matches against newly promoted opposition, The Cherries have conceded an average of 7.2 shots on target per 90.

Although Bournemouth fans haven’t been able to bask in offensive glory on too many occasions this season, few players in the league have fired off as many shots as Semenyo.

The Ghanaian winger is averaging a ridiculous 4.58 shots per 90 and has gone for glory at least three times in each of his seven games. Those include tougher fixtures against Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle, across which he averaged 4.67.

One reason he is often less affected by the calibre of opposition is that his ability to shoot from range prevents him from relying on Bournemouth to break teams down. 12 of his 31 shots this season have come from outside the box, including at least two in each of those aforementioned tougher matches.