Bournemouth face a difficult opening test of 2026 as they entertain Premier League leaders, Arsenal at the Vitality Stadium.
Victory would lift Bournemouth up to 14th if Brighton lose at home to Burnley in the mid-afternoon kick-offs.
Arsenal will remain top regardless of the result, but can move seven points clear at the summit with a win if Aston Villa lose at lunchtime.
Team News
Lewis Cook could return for Bournemouth after he missed their 2-2 draw at Chelsea due to a neck injury.
Ryan Christie (knee), Ben Doak (hamstring), Tyler Adams, Veljko Milosavljevic (both knee) and Matai Akinmboni (muscle) remain absent.
Arsenal could welcome midfielder, Declan Rice back after he missed their 4-1 home win over Aston Villa due to a knee injury.
Riccardo Calafiori (muscle), Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera (both ankle), remain sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Bournemouth host Arsenal at Vitality Stadium on Saturday 3 January at 5:30pm GMT, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Bournemouth have won two of their last six meetings against Arsenal (W2, L4).
- Arsenal have lost just one of their last five league trips to Bournemouth (W3, D1, L1).
- Bournemouth have kept a single clean sheet in their nine previous home games against Arsenal in all competitions, which came in a 2-0 win here last season.
- Andoni Iraola’s Cherries are yet to lose a league game at home to London-based opposition this season (W1, D2).
- No Arsenal player had contributed to more league goals in 2025 than Leandro Trossard (19), who scored 10 goals and created nine assists.
Prediction
Although their winless run is now at 10 matches, Bournemouth will be pleased with the fighting spirit they showed at Chelsea to take an early lead before fighting back after the Blues clinically came from behind to take the lead, although they need to be more polished after they wasted a late potential winner.
Arsenal meanwhile were a game of two halves against Villa because their first half was just wasteful and defensively rode their luck at times, yet they were just ruthlessly clinical in the second half and controlled the game despite conceding a sloppy consolatory goal in injury time.
Bournemouth though are steadily getting back to their best performance level and are yet to lose at home to London-based opposition this season, but I do think that Arsenal will have too much attacking quality for them to live with.
Prediction: Bournemouth 1-3 Arsenal
Result: Bournemouth 2-3 Arsenal
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