Bournemouth v Arsenal: Go for Gunners again & a 5/1 shots on target special | OneFootball

Bournemouth v ArsenalSaturday 3 January, 17:30 kick-offLive on Sky Sports Premier League & Sky Sports Main Event

After a great start to the season it's all going wrong for Bournemouth, who are without a win in 10 Premier League games and are about to lose Antoine Semenyo to Man City.

Semenyo will play here and can perhaps leave a parting gift for the Cherries and help out his prospective new side by leading what would be an upset 11/2 home win against the leaders and title favourites.

Andoni Iraola's side have drawn four of the last five, mixing in relatively dull 0-0 and 1-1 stalemates with a crazy 4-4 at Old Trafford and the midweek 2-2 at Chelsea where they could easily have come away with all three points.

At home they're winless in four with just one goal in the last three, and while they did the double over the Gunners last season Mikel Arteta's side have suffered just one defeat in 16 right now after their impressive 4-1 hammering of in-form Aston Villa.

Man City's draw at Sunderland means the leaders have a nice four-point cushion and as 4/9 match favourites are expected to extend that to seven come full-time.

It's a tricky away day though, and Arsenal have won just one of the past four road trips in the league - and even that was a fortunate 1-0 win at Everton - so the 15/4 draw could be in play here.

You've obviously got to side with Arsenal though, and given the way recent games at the Vitality have gone - under 2.5 goals landing in four of five and both teams scoring in just two - I fancy a classic narrow away win for Arsenal, but with the caveat of the Cherries maybe bagging a goal so under four match goals should land comfortably.

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The half-time draw at 6/4 needs to be looked at as it's the most popular result in Bournemouth home games this season, landing in five of nine, and that could also play into backing the second half to have the most goals at 11/10.

That's been the case in two of the past three games at the Vitality and three of four Arsenal aways. Both sides have also seen a few late goals in their games recently so that's definitely worth a look for in-play bettors.

Two stats markets of interest here is cards and shots on target for both sides - with two cards and four shots on target each yielding a nice return for a slightly modest total for these two.

English Premier League - Top 5 Shots On Target

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Arsenal have seen two cards in their last three games in a row, while the Cherries have had at least two cards in nine of their last 12 games.

In terms of shots on target, these two rank third and fourth in the league. Arsenal have had at least four in six of their past seven away games - hitting seven or more in four of those and averaging over five during that span.

Bournemouth have hit this mark in six of nine at home and their overall average comes in at just over five for the season, so again totals well within reach.

Back Brooks & Zubamendi in 5/1 Bet Builder

Onto the player props - where a 10/1 OddsBoost on Gabriel to score a header jumps out after he bagged against Villa during the week.

For Bet Builder options, Gabriel is 8/11 to have 1+ headed shot, while a more conservative single play is the 7/2 for 1+ headed shot on target.

We should have a shots on target bet in here given that only the two Manchester sides have more in the league this season. Bournemouth have actually had one more than Arsenal (98-97) so we'll take one of the home side - with our man being David Brooks at 1/1 for one shot on target.

The Wales international scored at Chelsea in an action-packed display containing three shots on target from four attempts - and that came on the back of another two shots on target from just 45 minutes at Brentford.

Brooks has hit the target seven times from 15 attempts in his last four appearances - two of those off the bench - which averages out at one every 30 minutes so he's in superb form for this one.

Plenty of options in the Arsenal team but Martin Zubamendi looks a value play at 23/10 for a shot on target as he's very much trending in the right direction. He scored against Villa, which made it back-to-back games hitting the target and a three-game run of six shots on goal after a quiet spell.