Iraola on team news, feeling 'fresh and motivated' and possible record
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Arsenal at Emirates Stadium (12:30 BST). Here are the key lines from his news conference: Iraola confirmed Junior Kroupi and Alex Jimenez returned from the international break with niggles, but both are "fully recovered and ready to go". Justin Kluivert and Lewis Cook are the club's only "injured players" right now.
Cook is "taking more time than expected" to return to action after suffering a setback, while Kluivert is rushing to come back before the World Cup, but he isn't ready yet. Julio Soler is in first-team training, but he isn't ready "to play a lot of minutes", however, Tyler Adams and Ben Gannon-Doak have used the time off to "put themselves back into contention", leaving his squad "in a good place" going into the final stretch of the season. He added: "I will have to make difficult decisions this weekend because there will probably be more than 20 players ready to travel.
" The three-week break has been "a strange one", however, it has given him a chance to work with the players returning from injury. He added: "We will see if we are ready. We should be fresh and definitely motivated, though, because we are facing Arsenal, away from home, in a big game.
" When asked about travelling to St Mary's Stadium to watch the Gunners in FA Cup action, he replied: "It's something I like to do. I used to do it a lot when I was living in Madrid. The feeling you get from watching a game in-person is different to watching on TV.
It gave me more information. " On whether now is a good moment to play Mikel Arteta's side, after their Carabao Cup final and FA Cup quarter-final defeats: "There's never a good moment to face them. They are always very difficult to beat.