Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes took a extreme blow on Saturday night as Mikel Arteta’s aspect suffered a 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
The Gunners had been lowered to ten-men for the third time already this season on the half-hour mark when William Saliba was proven a straight crimson for a final man problem. Bournemouth took benefit of this nicely within the second half, with Ryan Christie opening the scoring earlier than Justin Kluivert secured all three factors from the penalty spot.
The defeat provides Manchester Metropolis and Liverpool an enormous alternative to create a spot between themselves and Arsenal within the title race on Sunday.
How the sport unfolded
After a combative opening 27 minutes, through which each groups appeared pretty evenly matched throughout the pitch, a sloppy again move from Leandro Trossard and a few equally sloppy defending from William Saliba gifted Bournemouth the upper-hand within the recreation.
Saliba’s last-man problem on Evanilson – who was clear by on purpose – was initially penalised with a yellow card, however after a VAR intervention the centre-back’s punishment was upgraded to a crimson card, leaving Arsenal to play 60 minutes on the Vitality Stadium all the way down to ten-men.
Regardless of going a man-down, it was truly Arsenal who’d create the primary actual probability of the sport within the thirty fifth minute. A unfastened ball within the field fell into the trail of Mikel Merino who, after controlling, dragged a low effort on purpose simply vast of the submit.
After that probability, Bournemouth expectedly started to dominate proceedings. Antoine Semenyo was the architect of stated dominance, inflicting the Gunners’ defence a boatload of issues. The 24-year-old compelled David Raya into a sensible cease at his close to submit after drifting previous Ben White, after which teed up Marcus Tavenier for the most effective goalscoring alternative of the first-half three minutes later – Raya as soon as once more arising trumps by flicking his effort across the submit.
Semenyo continued to trigger Arsenal’s backline issues at the beginning of the second half, and actually ought to’ve given his aspect the lead within the forty seventh minute. The Ghanian was discovered utterly unmarked by Dango Ouatarra 14 yards from the Arsenal purpose with a mid-riff excessive cross, and was unable to maintain his subsequent volleyed effort on purpose down – seeing it fly over the crossbar as an alternative of into the again of the web.
The introduction of Gabriel Martinelli for the somewhat woeful Trossard sparked the Gunners into life on the different finish of the park. The Brazilian in all probability ought to’ve given his aspect the lead simply ten minutes after his introduction, with Kepa Arrizabalaga (sure, that Kepa Arrizabalaga) diving rapidly to his left to stop his tame side-footed efforted from nestling at the back of the web.
Martinelli and Arsenal had been made to rue that missed probability on the seventieth minute mark, when a intelligent set piece resulted in Bournemouth taking a 1-0 lead. A brief nook kick into the close to submit space was cleverly flicked again to the sting of the field by Justin Kluivert and into the trail of Ryan Christie, who fantastically fired first time into the highest nook of the web.
One other defensive calamity from the Gunners would present Bournemouth a possibility to double their lead within the 77th minute. This time stated calamity got here from Jakub Kiwior, whose terrible tried again move to Raya was minimize out by Evanilson. After being rounded by the Brazilian striker, Raya proceeded to haul him to the bottom, leading to a penalty kick being given.
The penalty kick was scored with aplomb by Kluivert, with the substitute coolly side-footing into the underside nook of the web.
GK: David Raya – 6/10 – Made a number of respectable saves. Gave away a penalty, however was frolicked to dry by Kiwior within the lead as much as the foul.
RB: Ben White – 5/10 – Struggled to include Semenyo all through the first-half specifically.
CB: William Saliba – 2/10 – Despatched off contained in the opening half-hour. A poor week all-round for the centre-back, who was somewhat poor throughout his current worldwide video games with France too.
CB: Gabriel Maghalaes – 4/10 – Saliba’s sending off meant he has his work minimize out for him on the Vitality Stadium. He solely managed to win one duel and did not make a single profitable deal with within the defeat.
LB: Riccardo Calafiori – 7/10 – Regardless of Arsenal’s defensive struggles. Calafiori truly performed fairly nicely. The Italina worldwide gained 100% of his tackles, made six clearances and gained 5 duels throughout a busy 90 minutes.
CM: Thomas Partey – 4/10 – Misplaced possession means too many occasions, forcing his crew onto the again foot on quite a few events.
CM: Declan Rice – 6/10 – Threw himself about in the course of the park to relative impact, profitable 9 duels.
CM: Mikel Merino – 4/10 – As his 68% move accuracy attests, he was a bit in every single place in possession.
RW: Raheem Sterling – N/A – Sacrificed when Saliba was despatched off.
ST: Kai Havertz – 5/10 – Labored exhausting with out ever getting any semblance of service from his teammates.
LW: Leandro Trossard – 2/10 – His mistake led to Saliba getting despatched off, and he did little or no to redeem himself thereafter. A woeful efficiency.
Substitutes
SUB: Jakub Kiwior (37′ for Sterling) – 2/10 – Little bit of a disaster-class. The Poland worldwide’s horrid mistake led to Bournemouth’s second purpose, and he was promptly subbed off by Arteta quickly 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
Supervisor – Mikel Arteta – 5/10 – It wasn’t his fault that William Saliba noticed crimson within the first half, however many Arsenal followers had been maybe disillusioned that it was the full of life Sterling that was sacrificed within the aftermath versus the hopeless Trossard.
