Arsenal fell 2-1 to Bournemouth, a damaging result with six matches to go. The Gunners are still in control of their Premier League fate, but the dropped points mean that Manchester City now control their own fate, too. It’s all going to come down to the head-to-head next weekend. As for today, the combination of injuries taking most of Arsenal’s technical quality away and fatigue were too much to overcome. Bournemouth have been off for three weeks while Arsenal have played two matches. It showed.
With Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori, and Jurrien Timber missing, not to mention Mikel Merino, Arsenal don’t have the on-ball quality needed to create sustained attacking waves. Ødegaard’s absence was also keenly felt against Bournemouth’s heavy press. Too often, Arsenal had to knock it long, at which point Bournemouth’s fresher legs were favorite to win the second ball. The two first-choice fullbacks and star winger would have helped with that, too. All four of the missing players have the on-ball security to help break the press and the skill to create dangerous attacking opportunities off the back of it.
You’ve got to work with what you have, though. With so much attacking quality missing, Arsenal have to rely on not conceding / only giving up one goal, and today, they gave up two. I hate to sound like a broken record, but the first Bournemouth goal is down to backup players. I can confidently say that with one or both of Bukayo Saka / Jurrien Timber on the pitch, that goal doesn’t happen. Instead, neither Ben White nor Noni Madueke tracked a runner and the defensive line was broken by a simple pass to a wide open runner.
And it still took an annoying bit of good fortune for Bournemouth to score on that move. William Saliba had the play covered. He slid over and deflected what was a poorly hit cross to begin with. The deflection stranded David Raya and put the ball on a platter for Junior Kroupi to score.
For what it’s worth, I also question what the Arsenal bench were doing on the play. Surely someone — Mikel Arteta, an assistant coach, or even another player, could see the unmarked man about to break into space. Why wasn’t anyone shouting at Ben White or Noni Madueke to pick him up?
Arsenal equalized relatively quickly. Viktor Gyokeres scored an excellent penalty to level the score in the 35th minute. From then on (and all day, really), it was a low-event contest. The Gunners had neither the quality nor the legs to pin Bournemouth back and create loads of chances. It felt like the best the Gunners would manage would be to hold on for a draw. Or maybe find a way from a set piece.
Instead, it was another lost runner, this time by Martin Zubimendi through the middle, that led to a Bournemouth goal. The Gunners made two big defensive errors on the afternoon and were punished with goals against for both of them. That’s pretty unlucky. But sometimes it happens!
There’s part of me that wants to take a shot at Mikel Arteta for his lineup choices. We’ve seen the Gyokeres-Madueke-Martinelli combination before. It doesn’t really work. Whatever role Kai Havertz was meant to play today was the wrong one — he was completely ineffective and Arsenal played without their best striker leading the line. But what are the alternatives? Leandro Trossard has been poor for about two months. When he’s going, he can provide that calming presence and technical quality but he’s not that player right now. Ebere Eze was clicking in a pseudo-Ødegaard role, but he is just back from injury and was likely on a minutes limit today.
All teams have to do is man-mark Martin Zubimendi and Arsenal struggle to progress the ball, particularly without the first-choice fullbacks on the pitch to provide alternative routes forward. The Gunners didn’t have Riccardo Calafiori’s third-man runs through the middle to create space and give passing options. Myles Lewis-Skelly wasn’t really a problem — he had one of his better performances for the season — but that’s a pretty low bar given his form. Arsenal didn’t have Jurrien Timber striding forward, either. Ben White is a shadow of the player he was two and three seasons ago.
I do think that Arteta got the second-half subs wrong, which is odd because at the time, most people praised him for making a proactive, positive decision. But in bringing on Leandro Trossard, Ebere Eze, and Max Dowman at the same time, he essentially went all-in in that moment and didn’t leave himself with many options for further positive changes down the line. Can you really blame the manager for going for it at 1-1 early in the second half when the club need wins much more than draws?
If you needed any more evidence that the injuries are taking a toll, look no further than Arteta’s 4th and 5th subs, at 2-1 down, being Cristhian Mosquera, a right back without any particular attacking quality but fresh legs I guess, and Gabriel Jesus, whose last meaningful contribution feels like it came two knee injuries ago.
It’s easy to think about what could have been done differently and how that might have affected the outcome. It might have been better to roll the dice on starting Leandro Trossard over Gabriel Martinelli and let the Brazilian run at tired defenders as a second half sub. But then Arsenal would have had 55-60 minutes of the winger (Trossard) who instead of smashing the ball first time across the box from inside the six took extra touches, couldn’t sort his feet, and let the ball roll out for a goal kick.
That’s a lot of digital ink spilled to say I’m not sure what else to expect at this point. This team is beaten up and worn down. Performances like today are kinda what happens when you’re running on (less than) fumes. Until and unless key players come back from injury, it’ll be more of the same from here on in. Arsenal need to dig deep, defend nearly flawlessly, and hope that they score one of the two open play chances they create and / or pot one from a set piece. That and bank on Manchester City, a side that has dropped points to Nottingham Forest and West Ham in their last two matches, continuing to be that team and not morphing into an unbeatable monster.
