Arsenal saw off a pesky Bournemouth side 3-2 at the Vitality Stadium to consolidate Manchester City dropping points midweek, extend the lead at the top of the table, and put the pressure on Pep Guardiola’s
side to get a result or risk falling further behind. The Gunners did well to bounce back from an early Gabriel mistake that gifted the home side an early 1-0 lead and, more importantly, regrouped superbly after conceding to make it 3-2 to close out the game.
What else can you say about Declan Rice? He’s all-everything. He missed the match against Aston Villa with knee swelling, was a question mark to play today, and all he did was score two goals while mopping everything up defensively, too. Noni Madueke was excellent, too. He caused problems down the wing the entire time he was on the pitch and stepped up his defensive workrate, which is the surefire way to earn yourself more playing time from Mikel Arteta. Martin Ødegaard continued his run of strong games. It was his perfect pass that put Bukayo Saka in on the move for the third Arsenal goal.
If you’re going to make a horrible mistake like Gabriel did to gift Bournemouth a goal, I suppose it is best to make it in the 10th minute of the match. I’m not sure if the Brazilian CB didn’t see the Bournemouth attacker lurking in the middle or if he horribly miskicked the ball, but whew, dreadful mistake. He quickly made amends for the error, tidily volleying home from the post-set piece chaos in the Bournemouth box.
The visitors made the first half uncomfortable for Arsenal. Their pressure sped up play through the middle and contributed to sloppy passing. They were helped by permissive refereeing that allowed a lot of clutching and grabbing go, which helped the Cherries slow guys down and reel them in as the press started to break. It was not a particularly pretty first half of football.
Things got better as the second half wore on. Bournemouth dropped off a bit and confused / stymied Arsenal with more of a mid-block, but the Gunners remained patient. The breakthrough came in the 54th minute. Viktor Gyokeres bullied his way into the box, driving the defense back. The ball was knocked away from him, but Arsenal recovered it, and with the space created by their striker, Martin Ødegaard found Declan Rice, who fired home from distance.
Just shy of 20 minutes later, Rice doubled the Arsenal lead. Ødegaard played a perfectly weighted through ball to Bukayo Saka. The winger found Rice in acres of space 12-yards out to give the Gunners that all-important two-goal cushion.
It took just five minutes to show why it’s so important to keep pushing and looking to extend the lead. Junior Kroupi scored a wonder-goal from 25 yards out. Piero Hincapie didn’t track the winger’s run infield on a give-and-go, which gave the 19-year old way too much time and space. I’m not sure whether Hincapie is supposed to stay with him or pass him off, but neither happened. The Arsenal defense needed better communication on the move. There were a couple other times where guys looked a bit confused as to who was picking up who, something I’m sure the coaching staff will have noticed and will correct.
Arsenal responded really well to conceding. The home crowd were energized but the Gunners closed up shop. Bournemouth managed two shots, both blocked, after scoring to make it 3-2. Arsenal fired five and spent the majority of the last 20 minutes on the ball in the middle and attacking third. I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of bringing Mikel Merino on for Martin Ødegaard, but the Spaniard’s energy and composure were needed. The Cherries ran out of steam and the last 10-15 minutes were pretty comfortable. Making a full line change up front — Madueke, Martinelli, and Gyokeres off, replaced by Saka, Trossard, and Gabriel Jesus — will do that to an opposing team, especially when you play a high energy style like Bournemouth do. Arsenal’s fresh legs passed through the middle with ease and saw out the clock without much issue.
I’m not going to get back into micro-analyzing referee decisions in every match but I don’t think you can talk about today’s match without mentioning that Chris Kavanagh was dreadful. Antoine Semenyo was extremely lucky to stay on the pitch in the first half after pulling Declan Rice back on the break. Martin Zubimendi’s yellow card for “delaying the restart” was ridiculous, particularly because Bournemouth were permitted (twice) to prevent Arsenal taking quick free kicks, including Kroupi while on a yellow. Don’t forget — Kavanagh had no choice but to show Declan Rice a second yellow last season. Gabriel Jesus had his leg grabbed and held to prevent him carrying the ball into the box. Amine Adli, on a yellow card, lowered his head to waist height and into Gabriel’s elbow, then threw himself to the ground to try to con the referee into giving a penalty kick. Sidenote: I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that before!
Kavanagh is quite simply not up to Premier League standard. It’s not about bias or anything like that. He’s just a terrible referee. And he was recently named to some list of high class referees!
Today’s win means Arsenal are 15 points better than the equivalent fixtures from last season. They’re also 9 points better off through 20 matches than they were last campaign. The club have five days off before hosting Liverpool, which kicks off another month of congested fixtures. The Gunners don’t have a midweek off until the February international break. Mikel Arteta has to keep trusting his squad, like he did today, to keep guys fresh.
