Arsenal 1 Bournemouth 2
Another twist in the title race. The Premier League is back with a bang as Bournemouth stunned Arsenal at the Emirates to blow the title race wide open for Man City, Bournemouth started the better side and scored the opening goal as Ryan Christie played a brilliant pass in behind the Arsenal backline for Truffert who’s deflected cross found Junior Kroupi at the back post who put the Cherries in front in the 17th minute. Bournemouth continued to look the better side but it was Arsenal who scored the next goal as Gabriel fired the ball against Ryan Christie’s arm from about two yards out as the referee deemed the arm to be in an unnatural position and awarded Arsenal a pretty dubious penalty in my opinion, Gyokeres stepped up and fired a missile past Petrovic to bring the sides level going into half-time. You’d think Arsenal would up the intensity in the second half but it was much the same even after Mikel Arteta brought on the likes of Eze, Trossard and Dowman, Raya looked nervous playing out from the back which didn’t help the atmosphere in the stadium leading up to Bournemouth’s second of the game which came after some good work from David Brooks down the right who tried feeding the ball to Evanilson but the ball went through him falling to Alex Scott who had a free run into the box and fired convincingly past Raya to give Bournemouth the lead in the 74th minute. Arsenal had no real answer after that and created nothing in the last 20 minutes as they dropped crucial points in the title race.
What a performance from Bournemouth. From the outset Bournemouth were by far the better team in the game winning every duel all over the pitch as Arsenal had no real answer for the Bournemouth press other than passing it back to Raya who looked nervy all game and was fortunate not to cost his team a goal on a number of occasions, I said in the last game between Bournemouth and Man United that I wanted to see Kroupi and Evanilson start together and we saw the damage that duo could do as they were both involved in Bournemouth’s two goals today. The matchwinner Alex Scott was excellent in that midfield today along with Ryan Christie against Rice and Zubimendi with the Bournemouth duo in my opinion coming off with the better performances up against one of the best midfields in the league, I was super impressed with Marcos Senesi as well at the back for Bournemouth who looked so composed on the ball breaking the Arsenal press a number of times to set Bournemouth on the attack. Senesi’s contract expires in the summer and I’m sure there will be no shortage of suitors for a player so comfortable on the ball back there, this win puts the Cherries into 9th place only three points off Chelsea so there’s still plenty to play for in the Premier League for Bournemouth until the end of the season, what a performance from the Cherries.
What a horrific performance from Arsenal. The performances from Arsenal over the last few weeks or so have been absolutely terrible seeing them lose 3 out of the last 4 along with a pretty poor performance in Portugal against Sporting midweek but they are going to have to find some inspiration from somewhere over the next week before heading to the Etihad on Sunday. That attack that Arteta put out was hard to watch for a neutral with Gyokeres, Havertz, Martinelli and Madueke all stinking up the pitch with performances so bad you wouldn’t believe they are 1st in the league at the minute, even the subs when they came on were awful as Trossard kept the giving the ball away, Eze was anonymous and Dowman looked off the pace completely. Declan Rice looked like the only Arsenal player that actually wanted to win the game going on some brilliant wins but I can’t say the same for his partner Martin Zubimendi who is a million miles away from the player he was at the start of the season, at the back Ben White was poor yet again for that first goal losing his man and Arteta needs Jurrien Timber back from injury asap if they want to get back to some form in the league. This is such a blow for Arsenal who are going to have to pick themselves up quickly as Sporting come to the Emirates on Wednesday for the the second leg, surely Arsenal can’t lose that one?
How much longer can Bournemouth hold onto Andoni Iraola for? Yet again Bournemouth continue to reach new heights under this manager as they look to get into Europe for the first time this season, it would be a ridiculous achievement after losing his whole backline in the summer along with his best player Antoine Semenyo in January. It’s hard to fathom that Bournemouth play like they haven’t lost any of their star players and can rock up to the Emirates and deservedly beat the league leaders but that’s down to the genius of Andoni Iraola, they are easily one of the most entertaining teams in the league and are now 12 games unbeaten in the league since January when Arsenal beat them at the Vitality. You do get the feeling that Iraola will leave Bournemouth in the next few seasons if not this summer with so many teams looking managers, whatever team he does eventually go to will be getting a top quality manager, there is no doubt about that.
So, where does this leave us in the title race? Arsenal remain nine points clear at the top but City now have 2 games in hand along with an almighty clash at the Etihad next week which could very well decide where the title is going in May, before that City have a huge game at Stamford Bridge tomorrow against Chelsea which they simply have to win after dropping points in their last two Premier League games against Nottingham Forest and West Ham. For Arsenal they simply cannot afford to lose next week at the Etihad or else the title is basically in Cities hand seeing they win tomorrow, goal difference could play a big part as if City win their two games in hand the goal difference would probably be equal especially if they win next week against the league leaders. It’s going to be a really exciting end to the season for the neutral but for Arsenal fans it’s going to be agonising if they continue to put in well below-par performances in this last stretch of games, looking forward to that titanic clash next week at the Etihad.