Joshua King, on his return to the Bournemouth squad from injury, has a go at goal with a gentle, curling effort. It's easily collected by goalkeeper Petr Cech. 

There's bit of a worry for the Cherries as midfielder Harry Arter goes down after a clash of heads with Calum Chambers. He gets up gingerly, and will carry on for now. 

Bournemouth earn the first corner of the game and it's taken short and not too successfully. 

Arsenal forward Theo Walcott steals possession and paces forward but it comes to nothing. 

Cherries boss Eddie Howe has his notebook out already. Bit early for that.

The players enter the field and help the fans in giving the late Don Howe a rousing minute's applause. 

The former Gunners manager passed away, aged 80, last week.

Arsenal then get us under way at the Emirates. 

Image source, Getty Images

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport at Emirates Stadium

"'London Calling' by The Clash booms out around Emirates Stadium as kick-off approaches and the last few home fans file in for this sold-out game. Bournemouth sold out their allocation of 3,000 tickets in rapid order and are jam-packed into their corner, in good voice. Minnows they may be in top-flight terms, but they will look back on 2015 as arguably the greatest single year in the club's history."

BBC Radio Solent's Chris Wise gives us a glimpse of the Arsenal programme which is dedicated to Don Howe, who passed away last week.

Image source, BBC Sport

There is no need to scream your prediction at your computer any more - you can have your say using BBC Sport's Predictor.

There is a league table for how fans of each club are doing prediction-wise this season and you can also see whether your predictions are better than Mark Lawrenson's.

What are you waiting for? Get involved.

Eddie Howe's Bournemouth are only three points off the drop zone in but they're on a decent run going into their final game of the year.

The Cherries are unbeaten in six Premier League matches (W3, D3) and have a decent record in the capital. 

Image source, .

Mark Lawrenson
Ex-Liverpool defender at St James' Park for Radio 5 live

Arsenal always let you down and it happened again at Southampton. They just didn't appear.

Arsenal were bullied by Southampton, they had no answer to Shane Long's pace and capitulated towards the end. It looked a game too far for some of the players, which is worrying, but even on a bad day they will create chances. With the players they have got Arsenal should be favourites to win the league from here but the problem is they always throw in a Southampton type result.

In a normal season you would worry for their chances but in this season of flux, of change, of inconsistency they will probably get away with it.

I love the spirit of Bournemouth and the way that they don't change the way they play for anybody. They run their hearts out every game. They won't get a result at the Emirates though.

Lawro's prediction: 2-0

Image source, Getty

With current leaders Leicester not playing Manchester City until Tuesday, second-place Arsenal have the chance to go top of the Premier League.

But they're going to have to shake off the Boxing Day hangover, after their 4-0 defeat by Southampton which ended their four game unbeaten run. 

If the Gunners do finish the year on top, it will be for the fifth time, after 2001-02, 2002-03, 2007-08 and 2013-14. 

And only in 2001-02 did they go on to win the league. 

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport at Emirates Stadium

"Arsenal and Bournemouth have never met in the league, and their paths have only crossed once in competitive football - in a League Cup third round tie at Highbury on 27 October 1987.Harry Redknapp's Cherries, newly promoted to the old Second Division, had knocked Southampton out in round two but Michael Thomas, Alan Smith and Kevin Richardson helped the Gunners to a comfortable 3-0 win. Picking the ball out of the net three times was Bournemouth keeper Gerry Peyton - who is now Arsenal's goalkeeping coach."

That, my friends, is knowledge.

Image source, .

Bournemouth make two changes, with Marc Pugh replacing top scorer Junior Stanislas on the left and fit-again Joshua King coming in for Glenn Murray as the lone striker. 

Starting XI: Boruc, Daniels, Cook, Francis, Smith, Gosling, Arter, Surman, Ritchie, Pugh, King

Image source, .

Arsenal make four changes after their shock 4-0 defeat by Southampton on Boxing Day.

Kieran Gibbs, Calum Chambers, Gabriel and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replace Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Joel Campbell and Mathieu Flamini.

Starting XI: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Chambers, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Walcott, Giroud

These guys have had a pretty good 2015...

Image source, Getty Images

And it wasn't bad for these guys either...

Image source, Getty Images

But who is going to go see out the year with a bang - FA Cup winners Arsenal, or Championship title holders Bournemouth? 

You better stick around to find out...

Welcome to our live page for Arsenal v Bournemouth. We’ll have live text commentary here from 17:00 GMT. You can keep up to date with all the build-up and latest from today’s other games here.