Can Cherries scupper Arsenal's title bid?

The odds of AFCB getting a result against Arsenal may not be that favourable with the bookies, but they won't be made that long either with their recent form and the Gunner's failure to win any of their last four matches. Still, player for player, there is a massive gap between the financial pay packets of the players that Arsenal will run out at Dean Court to what the Cherries we see will be receiving, even if the Mirror reckons AFCB are loaded.

Arsenal players warm up at the Emirates – are they about to blow their title hopes?

Coming to play at our small ground though was not that easy for Everton and Man Utd and AFCB's players will have plenty of reason for believing that they can give Arsenal a closer run match than they did at the Emirates, when for the first 20 minutes they even were in the ascendancy. Arsenal have not suddenly become a goal-shy, tentative team that fear being on top of the league. They have shown signs of having a soft underbelly for several years in my opinion. Where are the players that are winners that can hold a torch up to former Gunners like Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp and Vieira? May be some of their stars of today will eventually win the Premier League, but just like Man City they have been making a poor job of taking Chelsea's crown this season with Leicester City still looking down on everyone below them.

This man was a winner - Thierry Henry, but he liked to use his hands a bit.

Does that make it a good time to play the Arsenal? I'm not so sure as much of this game will depend on how AFCB react to the team in front of them. They did not go out and put their usual forceful and goal-getting front foot forward against Spurs at home and they paid the price. But since then the Cherries have grown massively into this league and have worked out a way to get points at home as well as on the road. An unbeaten run has started again and if you look at the last 10 games that the Gunners and AFCB have had, you'll see that both teams have come away with five wins, three draws and two defeats. Remarkable isn't it?     

So while the teams are at opposite end of the table, there is probably good reason to believe that the Cherries can indeed get something out of this game. AFCB still need to play at their very best and we need the Gunners to have an off day. Indeed, I'd probably be more confident playing Arsenal after they were coming off the back of another Champions League game rather than a 0-0 at home with Saints, but once again AFCB play Arsenal just after the Saints have taken some points off of them. The pressure is all on Wenger's team though and that makes it a dangerous game for the Arsenal as AFCB are flying at the moment.

The team news for Arsenal this week is that Francis Coquelin is likely to be back in their side and Danny Wellbeck came through an U21 game this week so he could feature on the bench.

AFCB probable team
(4-5-1) Boruc, Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels, Ritchie, Surman, Gosling, Arter, Pugh, Afobe

AFCB Subs: Federici, Elphick, Wiggins MacDonald, King, Grabban, Murray

Arsenal line up
Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Campbell, Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud

AFCB Home Form
DWDLW

Arsenal Away Form
DWLDD

Score Prediction
Send in your predicted score for #AFCB v #Arsenal to @peterbell19 on Twitter. Please make your score clear to understand.

If you have a correct score prediction you are in with a chance of winning the Cherry Chimes prize which is a pair of AFCB non-tangle earphones this week. If two or more people have the correct score the winner will be picked out of the hat. Good luck!

Thanks again to Cherry Chimes Sponsors for this season Broomhill Garden Buildings, Natterjacks Vets and AltamiraDeco.