Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes took a severe blow on Saturday evening as Mikel Arteta’s side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
The Gunners were reduced to ten-men for the third time already this season on the half-hour mark when William Saliba was shown a straight red for a last man challenge. Bournemouth took advantage of this well in the second half, with Ryan Christie opening the scoring before Justin Kluivert secured all three points from the penalty spot.
The defeat gives Manchester City and Liverpool a huge opportunity to create a gap between themselves and Arsenal in the title race on Sunday.
How the game unfolded
After a combative opening 27 minutes, in which both teams looked fairly evenly matched across the pitch, a sloppy back pass from Leandro Trossard and some equally sloppy defending from William Saliba gifted Bournemouth the upper-hand in the game.
Saliba’s last-man challenge on Evanilson – who was clean through on goal – was initially penalised with a yellow card, but after a VAR intervention the centre-back’s punishment was upgraded to a red card, leaving Arsenal to play 60 minutes at the Vitality Stadium down to ten-men.
Despite going a man-down, it was actually Arsenal who’d create the first real chance of the game in the 35th minute. A loose ball in the box fell into the path of Mikel Merino who, after controlling, dragged a low effort on goal just wide of the post.
After that chance, Bournemouth expectedly began to dominate proceedings. Antoine Semenyo was the architect of said dominance, causing the Gunners’ defence a boatload of problems. The 24-year-old forced David Raya into a smart stop at his near post after drifting past Ben White, and then teed up Marcus Tavenier for the best goalscoring opportunity of the first-half three minutes later – Raya once again coming up trumps by flicking his effort around the post.
Semenyo continued to cause Arsenal’s backline problems at the start of the second half, and really should’ve given his side the lead in the 47th minute. The Ghanian was found completely unmarked by Dango Ouatarra 14 yards from the Arsenal goal with a mid-riff high cross, and was unable to keep his subsequent volleyed effort on goal down – seeing it fly over the crossbar instead of into the back of the net.
The introduction of Gabriel Martinelli for the rather woeful Trossard sparked the Gunners into life at the other end of the park. The Brazilian probably should’ve given his side the lead just ten minutes after his introduction, with Kepa Arrizabalaga (yes, that Kepa Arrizabalaga) diving quickly to his left to prevent his tame side-footed efforted from nestling in the back of the net.
Martinelli and Arsenal were made to rue that missed chance on the 70th minute mark, when a clever set piece resulted in Bournemouth taking a 1-0 lead. A short corner kick into the near post area was cleverly flicked back to the edge of the box by Justin Kluivert and into the path of Ryan Christie, who beautifully fired first time into the top corner of the net.
Another defensive calamity from the Gunners would gift Bournemouth an opportunity to double their lead in the 77th minute. This time said calamity came from Jakub Kiwior, whose awful attempted back pass to Raya was cut out by Evanilson. After being rounded by the Brazilian striker, Raya proceeded to haul him to the ground, resulting in a penalty kick being given.
The penalty kick was scored with aplomb by Kluivert, with the substitute coolly side-footing into the bottom corner of the net.
GK: David Raya – 6/10 – Made a few decent saves. Gave away a penalty, but was hung out to dry by Kiwior in the lead up to the foul.
RB: Ben White – 5/10 – Struggled to contain Semenyo throughout the first-half in particular.
CB: William Saliba – 2/10 – Sent off inside the opening 30 minutes. A poor week all-round for the centre-back, who was rather poor during his recent international games with France too.
CB: Gabriel Maghalaes – 4/10 – Saliba’s sending off meant he has his work cut out for him at the Vitality Stadium. He only managed to win one duel and didn’t make a single successful tackle in the defeat.
LB: Riccardo Calafiori – 7/10 – Despite Arsenal’s defensive struggles. Calafiori actually played quite well. The Italina international won 100% of his tackles, made six clearances and won five duels during a busy 90 minutes.
CM: Thomas Partey – 4/10 – Lost possession way too many times, forcing his team onto the back foot on a number of occasions.
CM: Declan Rice – 6/10 – Threw himself about in the middle of the park to relative effect, winning nine duels.
CM: Mikel Merino – 4/10 – As his 68% pass accuracy attests, he was a bit all over the place in possession.
RW: Raheem Sterling – N/A – Sacrificed when Saliba was sent off.
ST: Kai Havertz – 5/10 – Worked hard without ever getting any semblance of service from his teammates.
LW: Leandro Trossard – 2/10 – His mistake led to Saliba getting sent off, and he did very little to redeem himself thereafter. A woeful performance.
Substitutes
SUB: Jakub Kiwior (37′ for Sterling) – 2/10 – Bit of a disaster-class. The Poland international’s horrid mistake led to Bournemouth’s second goal, and he was promptly subbed off by Arteta soon after.
SUB: Gabriel Martinelli (64′ for Trossard) – 5/10
SUB: Ethan Nwaneri (81′ for Merino) – N/A
SUB: Gabriel Jesus (81′ for Kiwior) – N/A
Manager – Mikel Arteta – 5/10 – It wasn’t his fault that William Saliba saw red in the first half, but many Arsenal fans were perhaps disappointed that it was the lively Sterling that was sacrificed in the aftermath as opposed to the hopeless Trossard.
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