Ex-Tottenham midfielder Jamie O'Hara has taken a swipe at Arsenal after seeing some training footage online, whilst comparing it to something out of Ted Lasso.
Arsenal suffer damaging defeat to Bournemouth in Premier League title race
Saturday's lunchtime clash at the Emirates produced exactly the kind of result Arsenal did not need.
Bournemouth, arriving fresh after three weeks without a game, were sharper, more direct and ultimately more deserving of the three points in a 2-1 win that tightened the title race considerably.
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Arsenal, still carrying the effects of Tuesday's Champions League first leg against Sporting in Lisbon, never quite found their rhythm, and the home crowd made their frustration clear at full-time.
Junior Kroupi gave the visitors the lead inside 17 minutes, converting at the far post after a deflected cross fell perfectly into his path following a clever Ryan Christie pass.
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
Arsenal responded and drew level when Viktor Gyökeres converted a penalty before the break — his 18th goal of the season — but Bournemouth regained the advantage through Alex Scott, whose composed close-range finish with 15 minutes remaining proved decisive.
Arsenal created chances late on but could not find a way through, and struggled to create consistently throughout, with Martin Keown blasting the team for not passing the ball to Max Dowman more often.
They were booed off the pitch when the final whistle blew.
Mikel Arteta called it a "big punch in the face" and described the display as "strange." He could not fully explain it.
Bournemouth, who have beaten Arsenal at the Emirates in successive seasons now, had not conceded a league goal in over three weeks and carried the freshness that Arteta's squad visibly lacked.
The damage to the title race is real.
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Man City can reduce the gap at the top to six points when they face Chelsea today, with a game in hand on the leaders.
The two sides then meet at the Etihad next weekend in a fixture that has shifted in significance considerably as a result of this afternoon's result.
Before the game had even been played, however, Arsenal had already attracted attention of a different kind, and not the sort any club welcomes on matchday morning.
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A clip of Arsenal in training was posted online ahead of the Bournemouth fixture, showing players working through drills set to a music montage from what appeared to be TikTok.
The video was intended to project confidence and collective spirit going into a crucial home game, but it did not land universally well.
O'Hara watched the clip and offered his verdict without much hesitation.
For those unfamiliar, Ted Lasso is the fictional football manager at the centre of the Apple TV series of the same name — a character famous for boundless optimism, motivational placards, and an unwavering belief in the power of positive thinking, sometimes at the expense of tactical credibility.
In isolation, training content of this kind is standard practice for elite clubs.
Arsenal are not alone in producing it, but when that motivational video was followed by that disastrous loss, the juxtaposition became difficult to ignore for O'Hara.
The performance and the clip together will feed a broader narrative about whether Arsenal can handle the pressure of the run-in.
That question gets a significant answer next Sunday at the Etihad.
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