Not a lot of central midfield cover for Howe

When the yellow card finally fell on Jefferson Lerma, you could sense the feeling of 'oh no' around the game. Lerma will be another of those players now on the sidelines, but Bournemouth have to manage without their best players from time to time, and you can't always pick in which matches those absences are going to come.

Bournemouth have to play two top teams without Lerma - what a pity!

Looking around the central midfield players you'd have to see that Bournemouth are light in that area. It seems most probably that Surman will start along side Gosling for the next two games a there really isn't any other recognised central midfielders to call upon. It could well mean that Kyle Taylor is the one now waiting to come on if their is an injury to Gosling or Surman. It's also less likely that Aké could be brought into midfield now that Steve Cook is nursing a groin injury.

What Bournemouth will miss is the physical attributes of Lerma. He gets up and down and hustles players into mistakes in the middle by closing them down quickly. We need Surman and Gosling to be brave in the middle and to stick their heads in when they have to to win the ball back.

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The speed and accuracy of passing is also something that Bournemouth have to be on top of against Arsenal. It's going to be hard to get the possession, but Bournemouth need to get their wide players involved in the game and driving forward. We have only seen one big performance against a top six side from Bournemouth this season and they have the chance in the next two game to do something really special. That is what Howe needs to get across to the players. A win against Arsenal would set up the game against Man City for a much more entertaining game.

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