Arsenal vs Bournemouth predicted XI: Moving forward

Defense

There aren’t many options here. The only real question is what Mikel Arteta wants to do at right back. If he wants to get Hector Bellerin some more time in those rusty legs or if he wants to revert to Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who’s looking like the second choice at this point.

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Given that Bellerin tried last time, I have to believe that Maitland-Niles will get his chance to fire back and stake his claim to the position.

On the left side, there’s no option. With Tierney and Kolasinac both out yet again, Bukayo Saka will be back in the thick of it, growing and learning as he does so. He’s looked promising at the role, despite being so out of position.

In the center, we are rather limited. Pablo Mari isn’t official yet, so we have to choose between Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis and Rob Holding. That is, assuming Sokratis is finally ready to get back into it. But let’s assume he is, because my bet is on him starting next to Rob Holding to round out this defense.

There’s a lot of fragility here, but the potential is there to be sneaky effective.

Moving on to the midfield three.