Andoni Iraola showered praise on his fellow Basque **Mikel Arteta**and his **Arsenal**side.
**Bournemouth**have failed to win any of their last ten Premier League games, drawing five and losing five since their 2-0 victory against Nottingham Forest at the end of October. Next on the schedule is the visit of the league leaders, and the Gunners rightly strike fear into their opposition.
“They've been unbelievable this season. I think they are a team that you can compare them with anyone offensively, but probably defensively, without the ball, they are elite. They are the best team in the league. They don't concede chances and there is a reason they are top of the league.
“I think they've been really close past years and now they are getting better. They are a more complete squad with more depth with trying to make it happen and win the league. And they are on their way.
*“Right now, they have been the best team until today. They are very complete. They have incredible squad depth. They have now they've recovered also Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz up front. So, they can use their striker in different ways, recovering also Martin Odegaard. They can use him sometimes, it's not the same when they play with Eze or they play with Odegaard. They have a lot of options.*
“They can also alter the games during half time after the subs. And they've created a culture, I think Mikel has created a culture of being an elite team and having the humility from the players also to work a lot, to do all the stuff that you need to win games. That's the reason mainly they are so good.”
“You see a lot of Arsenal games and the opposition doesn't even arrive. It's not like they don't have a lot of shots or they don't even arrive. They control the games and don't allow you to do a lot of things.
“The defenders are, I think, top level and I think you have to be really clinical because nobody gets chances almost against Arsenal. The times you arrive, you have to punish them: they are a team used to control the games with the ball, without the ball.
*“They have very good forwards, but I think every time we recover we can have chance against other teams. Against Arsenal, it looks always more difficult because they have always very good structure, very good players defending for, for transition and it's always more difficult.*
“William Saliba* and Gabriel Magalhaes have been their main centre back partnership for the last years and they've been amazing. But also I would say the ones they've signed this season, Piero Hincapie, Christian Mosquera, they perform so well, you know that still with some injuries, they've kept their performance levels.*
“Obviously now with Gabriel even a bigger threat in set plays that they've been scoring loads of goals on set play. So it's definitely going to be a challenge for us. But also in our games last season, I think we scored also a couple of set plays against them. Sometimes a team that doesn't give you a lot of things in open play, you have to use these set play situations also to try to punish them.
“I think Arsenal consistently last three seasons, I would say that I've been here have been, if not the best, the second best team in every single season and they are very consistent also how they approach them and even if you know more or less what they are going to do, it's difficult to defend.
“We always try. All the teams are trying to put them under difficulties, but they are physically very strong and it's going to be a key part of the game. We will work like every team does, but it's a matter sometimes getting to the right spots, having the aggressivity to, to attack the ball. I hope we can do it.
*“The other day, I think against Chelsea, we did a very good job in that department. We scored also two set piece goals from long throws and are things that they definitely help you to take points.”*