CHRIS Mepham believes “it will only be a matter of time” before Cherries striker Dominic Solanke begins to realise his vast potential.

Solanke heads into the clash with Arsenal searching for his first goal for the club he joined from Liverpool for around £17.5million in January.

The 21-year-old had little service on his debut against Cardiff earlier this month, while he came on as a substitute at Liverpool with his team 3-0 down.

Solanke had his best chance to open his account on his home bow in the 1-1 draw against Wolves on Saturday but saw his low shot saved by Rui Patricio.

And defender Mepham, who first encountered Solanke in the youth ranks at Chelsea, feels the frontman will soon start to shine.

Mepham said: “I know Dom from our younger days and he was always a big talent who has gone on to get some sort of minutes at big teams.

“He has joined Bournemouth and it takes everyone a bit of time to get used to a new team.

“In training, he has shown a lot of glimpses and in the game against Wolves, there were a couple of times where you thought: ‘there’s a real talent there’.

“I think it will only be a matter of time before that comes out more often and, hopefully, he can replicate what he’s doing in training.”

Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were on target in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Southampton on Sunday.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil are also among the attacking options available to Gunners boss Unai Emery.

“They are the sort of players I want to be marking every week,” said Mepham.

“I know it is going to be hard at times but I got a taste for it against Wolves and felt I coped well.

“We’ve shown already this season that we can hold our own against bigger teams, like Chelsea recently.

“There is no reason why we can’t go to the Emirates and repeat the same sort of performance.

“We have to take confidence from the Wolves game into Wednesday. Arsenal have been a bit up and down this season.

“They started really well but faded so we will definitely go there full of confidence.”

Cherries boss Eddie Howe felt Mepham, 21, had given a good account of himself against Wolves.

Howe said: “When you consider his age and the fact he hasn’t had a lot of football in the past six weeks and that he’s at a new club, I thought he did brilliantly.

“I think he showed what he is going to be for us and showed his potential. He is composed on the ball and did really well aerially and athletically.

“We know Wolves are a very quick team and very good on the counter-attack. He would have learned a lot from the game.”