Arsenal legend Martin Keown has had his say after Mikel Arteta's side suffered a very damaging defeat in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal suffer Bournemouth defeat with Man City gifted route back
Arsenal's Premier League lead remains nine points, but the picture shifted dramatically at the Emirates today.
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Bournemouth, coming into this game on three weeks' rest and without a league defeat since January, produced exactly the kind of composed, disciplined performance that has become their trademark under Andoni Iraola — and walked away with all three points in a result that now throws the title race wide open.
Junior Kroupi gave the visitors an early advantage after 16 minutes in circumstances that summed up Arsenal's afternoon.
Ryan Christie played a perfectly weighted pass down the right channel to Adrien Truffert, whose low cross deflected off William Saliba and sat up invitingly for Kroupi to convert at the far post.
Viktor Gyökeres pulled Arsenal level from the penalty spot just before the half hour — Christie adjudged to have handled — to bring up his 18th league goal of the season.
Arsenal's last six Premier League games in title charge Date
Man City (away) April 19
Newcastle (home) April 25
Fulham (home) May 2
West Ham (away) May 10
Burnley (home) May 17
Crystal Palace (away) May 24
However, the equaliser did little to lift the fog of anxiety that had settled across the ground. Alex Scott's composed finish 16 minutes from time, after a slick passing move opened Arsenal's defensive shape, completed the damage.
The home crowd responded at full-time with a chorus of deafening boos.
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Arteta described the defeat as "a big punch in the face", and struggled to explain a performance he called "strange".
His side had beaten Sporting Lisbon 1-0 in the Champions League quarter-final first leg in Portugal on Tuesday, but that exertion did not fully account for how little they offered here against opponents who had barely kicked a ball in a month.
The statistics told their own story.
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David Raya, who received 38 back passes across the 90 minutes and was involved in the second-most passing actions of any Arsenal player on the day, became a focal point of analysis.
Rather than using the goalkeeper as a springboard to move the ball quickly and escape pressure, Arsenal repeatedly returned possession to him — allowing Bournemouth to set their defensive block, narrow the space and suffocate whatever attacking momentum the home side might have built.
It was a truly lacklustre attacking display by the north Londoners, despite the return of star playmaker Eberechi Eze ahead of schedule.
Martin Keown says Max Dowman barely got the ball for Arsenal
They needed spark from somewhere, and when Arteta introduced 16-year-old Max Dowman in the second half, the substitution was intended to inject some much-needed directness.
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The TNT Sports punditry team were vocal about the opportunity it presented at full-time.
Keown said "we were screaming" as they urged Arsenal to find Dowman, with the youngster offering a genuine outlet down the right channel that his teammates were failing to spot or exploit.
The ball, instead, kept going backwards.
Dowman managed a dangerous cross deep in stoppage time that Bournemouth's goalkeeper was forced to punch into a crowd of players, with Gyökeres' follow-up effort deflecting narrowly over, but those were fleeting moments rather than the sustained threat he had the pace and desire to offer.
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City can now reduce the gap at the top to six points when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, with a game in hand over Arsenal.
The two sides then meet at the Etihad the following weekend in a fixture that has now taken on an entirely different weight.
A Champions League second leg against Sporting at the Emirates on Wednesday sits between now and that trip to Manchester — a packed week that will define whether Arsenal hold their nerve or surrender what had looked a commanding lead.
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