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 decreased to ten-men for the third time already this season on the half-hour mark when William Saliba was proven a straight pink for a final man problem. Bournemouth took benefit of this properly within the second half, with Ryan Christie opening the scoring earlier than Justin Kluivert secured all three factors from the penalty spot.
The defeat offers 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, during which each groups regarded pretty evenly matched throughout the pitch, a sloppy again go from Leandro Trossard and a few equally sloppy defending from William Saliba gifted Bournemouth the upper-hand within the sport.
Saliba’s last-man problem on Evanilson – who was clear via on objective – was initially penalised with a yellow card, however after a VAR intervention the centre-back’s punishment was upgraded to a pink 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 likelihood of the sport within the thirty fifth minute. A free ball within the field fell into the trail of Mikel Merino who, after controlling, dragged a low effort on objective simply huge of the submit.
After that likelihood, Bournemouth expectedly started to dominate proceedings. Antoine Semenyo was the architect of mentioned dominance, inflicting the Gunners’ defence a boatload of issues. The 24-year-old pressured David Raya into a sensible cease at his close to submit after drifting previous Ben White, after which teed up Marcus Tavenier for one of the best goalscoring alternative of the first-half three minutes later – Raya as soon as once more developing 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 objective with a mid-riff excessive cross, and was unable to maintain his subsequent volleyed effort on objective down – seeing it fly over the crossbar as a substitute of into the again of the online.
The introduction of Gabriel Martinelli for the slightly 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 shortly to his left to forestall his tame side-footed efforted from nestling at the back of the online.
Martinelli and Arsenal had been made to rue that missed likelihood 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 superbly fired first time into the highest nook of the online.
One other defensive calamity from the Gunners would present Bournemouth a chance to double their lead within the 77th minute. This time mentioned calamity got here from Jakub Kiwior, whose terrible tried again go 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 online.
GK: David Raya – 6/10 – Made just a few first rate 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 particularly.
CB: William Saliba – 2/10 – Despatched off contained in the opening half-hour. A poor week all-round for the centre-back, who was slightly 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 properly. The Italina worldwide received 100% of his tackles, made six clearances and received 5 duels throughout a busy 90 minutes.
CM: Thomas Partey – 4/10 – Misplaced possession means too many instances, forcing his crew onto the again foot on a lot of 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% go accuracy attests, he was a bit all over in possession.
RW: Raheem Sterling – N/A – Sacrificed when Saliba was despatched off.
ST: Kai Havertz – 5/10 – Labored laborious 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 objective, 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 pink within the first half, however many Arsenal followers had been maybe disenchanted that it was the full of life Sterling that was sacrificed within the aftermath versus the hopeless Trossard.