Arsenal 1-2 Bournemouth
by Layth Yousif
at Ashburton Grove

BUOYANT Bournemouth blew the Premier League title race wide open with a deserved victory over stuttering Arsenal in north London on Saturday lunchtime.

A 74th-minute winner from Alex Scott saw the Cherries emerge merited winners following a fraught clash that saw Viktor Gyokeres’ thumping first-half penalty level Junior Kroupi’s opener.

Amid huge frustration among the home support, desperate to see their side progress to lift the title once again after 22 long years, not to mention banish the various agonies of three successive second-place finishes, Mikel Arteta’s off-key Arsenal side faltered in April yet again.

Speaking after the match, a deflated but defiant Arteta said: “It’s extremely disappointing — it’s a big punch in the face — but what I said to the boys, now it’s about how we react to that, because it’s game on, it’s going to require now a big spirit, a lot of fight and very clear how we’re going to approach that.”

Declan Rice skippered the side on his 100th Premier League appearance for the Gunners in the absence of club captain Martin Odegaard. Kai Havertz started, as did Gabi Martinelli after the pair combined beautifully for the former’s last-gasp winner at Sporting Clube de Portugal to win 1-0 on Lisbon on Tuesday evening.

Myles Lewis-Skelly appeared in the starting XI in a Premier League game for only the second time this season, in for Riccardo Calafiori, who was not in the Arsenal squad.

Also missing was Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber but Eberechi Eze returned to the bench after injury to join teenage prodigy Max Dowman as substitutes.

Andoni Iraola made one change to his Bournemouth side that played against Manchester United in their last league game with Junior Kroupi coming in for Amine Adli, while James Hill, 24, made his 100th appearance in English league football.

Arsenal resumed domestic duty back in N5 after an improbable gap of 28 days, knowing victory against Bournemouth would stretch their lead at the top of the table to 12 points, with Manchester City not playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge until Sunday.

France U21 international Kroupi put the Cherries 1-0 ahead on 17 minutes with a close range effort, after Adrien Truffert’s cross that saw the Bournemouth left-back fail to be tracked by Ben White or Noni Madueke.

The opener from the attacker signed from FC Lorient last summer ensured the impressive 19-year-old became one of only four players in the Premier League era to have notched 10 goals as a teenager in his debut season, joining Robbie Fowler, Robbie Keane and Kevin Gallen.

Stung, Arsenal nearly equalised after Havertz guided his header from Rice’s corner narrowly over Djordje Petrovic’s bar.

As the crowd started to get edgy, which in turn fed to the players, who became far too nervous to play fluently, the Gunners equalised.

Referee Michael Oliver was left with no option but to award a penalty, which VAR agreed with, after Gabriel struck the ball firmly at close range at Ryan Christie. The player’s arm was certainly in an “unnatural” position, leaving Gyokeres the chance to equalise with his spot-kick.

The in-form Swedish striker did not disappoint, with a powerfully struck effort which, while Petrovic guessed the right way, flew past his despairing dive to level at 1-1 with 10 minutes remaining until half time. The strike totalling 18 goals in an increasingly productive season, with 12 coming in the league for the bustling forward.

Ten minutes after the interval Arteta threw on Eze, Dowman and Trossard for Martinelli, Madueke and Havertz as the Gunners chased an all-decisive second goal.

Shortly afterwards, Gyokeres found himself in space to slot home, but was correctly ruled offside. Quite why the assistant referee took so long to flag is probably down to officials being scared witless to make a decision in this dispiriting age of VAR.

On 65 minutes, Declan Rice’s long range effort was tipped over by Petrovic, with the resulting corner coming to nothing, as the pressure and nerves amid the fraught crowd and players ramped up still further. 

However, it was to be Bournemouth who posted a deserved victory, earning huge credit for their footballing courage by relentlessly pressing throughout, which unsettled and unbalanced an insipid Arsenal, who had no answer to such a bold tactic from Iraola.

With the match still in the balance, Bournemouth broke to see Trossard block bravely, before Scott’s long-range effort flew high and wide on 71 minutes.

Three minutes later, Arsenal eventually fell behind, when the influential Scott put the visitors ahead, dovetailing with Evanilson, before firing home with a fine finish past Raya to put the visitors 2-1 up.

As the clock ticked down, faltering Arsenal offered no hope of repeating their dramatic late 3-2 comeback win against Bournemouth back in March 2023, leaving the delirious Cherries fans massed in the away end to celebrate their deserved victory, singing: “Second again ole ole ole” to distraught home fans as the visitors dreamed of a late tilt at a European place.

“Very happy with the win,” Iraola said after the match as the Cherries made it a club record 12 games unbeaten in the top flight. “We haven’t lost a game since we lost to Arsenal in January … I hope this win gives us a better position in the standings,” before adding magnanimously, “they [Arsenal] are a big club and they have been playing so well…”

Arsenal will have to prove the second part of Iraola’s statement over the coming seven days, in which they have the chance at reaching the Champions League semi-finals by building on their 1-0 lead from Lisbon when they host Sporting on Wednesday evening, prior to their season-defining clash at Manchester City next Sunday.

Quite simply, if they win both, Arteta and Arsenal will be well on the way to desperately longed-for glory. 

Lose the pair, and the season will be seen as an abject failure. 

As ever with Arsenal, there is nothing in between.