Bournemouth arrived at the Emirates well rested from a 22 day siesta, having last played in a match on the 20th March. In fact their manager Andoni Iraola was actually more concerned that his players may well have lost their competitive edge during those 22 days, he needn’t have worried.
Bournemouth were also the only team in the Premier League to not have suffered, during this time, any single injuries so they turned up fully recuperated and fully fit. Not an excuse, only perspective.
Arteta had lost both Odegaard and Calafiori from the team that had won in Lisbon and still lacked his first choice right flank in Timber and Saka but the team he selected was, on paper, up to the task. On the bench was the ‘fit again’ pair of Hincapie and Eze. 7 games to go, 7 cup finals.
The opening 10 minutes saw both teams attempting to suffocate the opponent with every avenue of progression covered. Bournemouth looked in those opening minutes sharper, fitter and more robust and it was concerning. Arsenal gradually began to exercise some control but the ball worryingly was far too slow from Raya and the usual tempo setters at the back as there seemed to be a reluctance to go long which given the front three of runners Martinelli, Gyokeres and Madueke was mystifying.
Then on 17 minutes Bournemouth won possession and the ball was switched out to their left where Madueke and White were ball watching leaving the Cherries left back free and as he swung in a cross it took a wicked deflection off of William Saliba and dropped perfectly for Kroupier to tuck home. A mixture of poor defending and misfortune.
An already nervous Emirates crowd was now bordering on the neurotic and that apprehension fed into the home teams anxiety, it was a corrosive mixture and left me wondering if the home games we have left could be our undoing? A few minutes after that blow a Rice corner was driven into the box and a virtually unmarked Kai Havertz shouldered the ball over the bar, it reminded me of the headed chance he’d missed against Newcastle in the League Cup last season, again when we were up against it and needed a goal. It was a terrible miss. Arsenal began to speed up their movement and increase the intensity but the frustration was growing in the crowd. 30 minutes passed with only one Arsenal effort on target, you could feel the fear emanating from everywhere. Bournemouth obviously could also smell the fear and they fed on that as their confidence grew.
On 33 minutes Declan Rice got in a fierce drive that was deflected for a corner, Arsenal needed some help now and they duly got a hand. Madueke drove his corner into the danger area and the away team made a mess of clearing it and then Michael Oliver pointed to spot. Handball, harsh but handball. Cue the nerves as two different Arsenal players stood over the ball, leaving it eventually to Gyokeres who blasted home the equaliser. We all needed that, but Evanilson went close on 40 minutes as a little reminder that we still had some suffering to suffer.
Half-time 1-1.
It was now down to both coaches to see who could motivate their team the most at the interval and Iraola had already proved that he had an edge over Arteta. No changes in the line-ups and off we went, on 52 minutes White found Rice who drove in another shot, deflected for a corner that came to nothing. Arteta aware of the situation made a triple change on 54 to inject some fresh legs, off came the ineffective Martinelli for Trossard, off came the disappointing Madueke for Dowman and off came the pedestrian Havertz for Eze. Two minutes later Raya almost gave us collective heart failure when he miskicked straight to Evanilson who seemingly surprised just knocked the ball out of play. There was definitely something wrong with our team yesterday, they just seemed scared.
Arteta was jumping around waving his arms about on the sideline and it did cross my mind that sometimes he overdoes the touchline coaching, maybe that actually doesn’t really help? 65 minutes of nervous energy clicked by then Gyokeres broke clear and finished beautifully into the corner of the net, but he was eventually flagged offside. 68 minutes and Rice got in another great shot that the keeper tipped over the bar, the corner was wasted. These are the types of games where you need a bit of luck, a defensive cock-up or a misplaced pass, but Bournemouth weren’t giving us anything. At this stage I was beginning to think ‘let’s take the draw’…
More defensive hesitation by Raya and Gabriel saw both of them fail to clear the ball and to make things worse and man did it get worse. The away team regained possession and then opened up the Arsenal defence like a sardine can and into the chasm Scott strode and smashed the winner past a helpless Raya, who was having his worst game of the season – not great timing David. Arteta threw on Jesus for the below par Zubimendi and Mosquera for the struggling White but it was all too late, the tank was empty.
At this point I really would’ve taken the draw, in fact I’d imagine so would have Mikel. Gyokeres had a couple more efforts but the rest created nothing, both Trossard and Dowman had no real effect and Eze had a few touches but was pretty much on his own, as for Jesus, well we might as well have brought on Salmon! Arsenal had 15 attempts on goal with only 3 on target, it was a damaging blow to our title dreams. Just how damaging we’ll know by next Sunday evening but the knives are already being sharpened, not by me but there’s a lot of unhappy Gooners out there.
We march on, we have no choice.
**By Kev**