Bournemouth vs Arsenal Prediction, Odds and Betting Tips: Best Bets for Saturday’s South Coast Clash

Arsenal travel to Bournemouth in Saturday’s evening kick-off as part of a three-way title race as they sit one point off leaders Liverpool and level on points with champions Man City. 

A trip to the South Coast should be one that the Gunners will relish as they have won handsomely in both of their last two visits with an aggregate score of 7-0. Bournemouth meanwhile will likely be disappointed with their return of eight points from their opening seven Premier League fixtures and will be smarting from defeat at relegation candidates Leicester last time out.

Our first angle of attack features Bournemouth’s combative central midfielder Lewis Cook. The 27-year-old has been right in the thick of the action this season and has more fouls than any other player in the Premier League with 18. He also sits 12th for tackles having made 20. In terms of fouls, he’s made at least one in every game this season at an average of 2.6 per game and for tackles, he’s had two or more in five of his seven appearances averaging 2.88 per 90 minutes. That means that this bet has won in 71% of his games this season, falling one tackle short against both Forest and Chelsea. 

Arsenal draw plenty of tackles and fouls from opposition central midfielders with at least one having two or more tackles in five of their seven league games and those opposition centre midfielders combining for 18 fouls between them. With Cook playing on the left side of Bournemouth’s midfield pivot, he’ll also have to cover Bukayo Saka who is dispossessed 2.53 times and fouled 2.05 times per 90 minutes this season. 

One of the standout differences in Arsenal’s set up this season has been how happy they have been to give up possession and defend. This subtle tactical change has seen their average tackle count rise from 16.1 last season which was the fourth lowest average in the league up to 17.7 this campaign. They’ve made 18 or more tackles in just three of those matches but the key to this particular bet is in Bournemouth’s data. 

The Cherries have drawn an average of 18.3 tackles per game from their opponents with four of those seven seeing the 18 or more needed to land this bet. Their home games at The Vitality Stadium tend to see more tackles than usual and this is demonstrated by their average of 21.63 tackles drawn at home last season. This has continued this season with both Newcastle and Southampton having over 20 to carry on a trend that saw 12 of last season’s 19 visiting sides making 18 or more tackles. Amongst those visiting sides were Arsenal themselves who despite winning comfortably 4-0, still managed to commit a huge 28 tackles.  

We have a team in Arsenal who look more defensively minded against a team who draw more than their fair share of tackles with the game taking place at a ground that consistently breeds tackles, what’s not to like?