Former Arsenal star Paul Merson has predicted that despite losing heavily to Southampton on Boxing Day, his former side still has what it takes to overcome Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth, who come into the game unbeaten in their last six.
In his weekly predictions for Sky Sports, Merson believes that the Gunners will edge out the Cherries by three goals to one. He argues that Arsene Wenger’s men won’t have a better opportunity to win the Barclays Premier League title than this season and so this alone will reignite the fire in the players hearts to bounce back from the Southampton result to beat Bournemouth.
Arsenal were flying, and then they go and get beat badly by Southampton. They still won’t have a better chance to win the league than this season, and with that in mind, I do not see Bournemouth getting anything at the Emirates.
Wenger will want a response from his side, and while the Gunners might concede, I think they’ll win relatively comfortably.
Ahead of the game, both Mikel Arteta and Alexis Sanchez are very close to making their return to the Arsenal team from injury and this will give a massive boost to the side who have been suffering a little due to a lack of options in the midfield.
