- Frenchman was sent off for tackle on Evanilson with the referee sent to screen
- Goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert saw Andoni Iraola’s side secure win
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If the season ends with another of those narrow misses for Arsenal, then it is likely Mikel Arteta will shudder in his recollections of this trip south. Staring at an open window to the top of the table, his side stumbled hard into the frame.
It will be a while before we know the precise implications of what played out here, but any grievances with refereeing processes ought to be set against a far sharper truth – Arsenal got what they deserved and so did Bournemouth.
This was an outcome rooted in self-sabotage from one team and effective, devastating control of the circumstances from the other, which is a sentiment that applies equally to events before and after the game’s decisive moment on the half-hour mark.
That came at 0-0, when William Saliba was initially shown a yellow card by Robert Jones for nudging over Evanilson from behind as the last line of Arsenal’s defence. Naturally, that was not the end of it – the VAR got involved, Jones looked at the screen, and yellow became red, 11 became 10, and an unbeaten campaign was soon to incur its first blemish.
Of course, those Arsenal fans who travelled would howl their reservations. Actually, they chorused that Jones was a ‘cheating ****’, which was a peculiar interpretation of the incident. Contact was minimal, Evanilson’s reaction was exaggerated, but there was a foul and Saliba had impeded a scoring opportunity. Whether the decision reached by VAR or Jones, it was correct.
If Arteta was unhappy about the mechanics of the call, then he did not express it and we can view that as progress. Indeed, he seemed more inclined to look inwards, which in the case of the dismissal would include scrutiny of Leandro Trossard’s scuffed pass started the sequence and the actions of Saliba, who became the third Arsenal player to receive a red card this season
If Arteta’s bunch ultimately fall short of Manchester City, Liverpool or anyone else in the long run, you wonder how closely it will be tied to such indiscipline. Here, the impact was underlined through the second-half strike from Ryan Christie, before Justin Kluivert buried a penalty, but we might add that Bournemouth were going just fine ahead of the sending off.
Andoni Iraola, whose friendship with Arteta goes back to when they were 12 in San Sebastian, had set up his team to press and squeeze and constrict and it was working a treat. They had lost of three of their previous four games, but this was no smash and grab win – it was well designed, even if the decisions did assist the delivery.
For Arteta, processing a first away defeat since last December, the result might prove a mere blip, but Arsenal were desperately poor on multiple fronts. Primarily in how their midfield was overrun and also for their inability to penetrate without Bukayo Saka, who has not yet recovered from his hamstring issue.
This match was always going to be a test of their punch in his absence and recording just one shot on goal across 90 minutes was troubling feedback.
Trossard, brought in as one of three changes to the side, offered none of the incision and Raheem Sterling, filling Saka’s spot on the right, was too isolated to be effective.
When the latter was worked into a threatening position, quarter of an hour in, he showed a flash of ingenuity by turning Marcos Senesi on the inside, but then, with the shot on, he cut back to his first right foot and had his cross swallowed up. Confidence is a fine thing and Sterling’s can be measured by such moments.
By that point, Bournemouth had built a solid platform for the game. Iraola’s side were forcing Arsenal’s midfield into backward manoeuvres and, eventually, long balls. Few have penned them in so well this season, but the risk, beyond burning out, was the space left behind for breaks.
Of course, that relied on the game remaining a contest of 11 on 11, which it did not. While Saliba will regret felling Evanilson as the last man, he wouldn’t have been in that situation had Trossard not set up the chase.
That scenario changed the dynamic of the game. First, Sterling was hooked for Kiwior, the latest little dagger in his efforts to find momentum, and then David Raya was forced into a pair of saves from Antoine Semenyo and Marcus Tavernier.
The pressure escalated with a near-miss early in the second half, when Semenyo ballooned over the bar and Dango Ouattara heightened Arsenal’s anxieties by repeatedly getting the better of Ben White.
In a moment of respite, Gabriel Martinelli went one on one with Kepa Arrizabalaga at the opposite end but failed to pull off the heist by shooting straight at the keeper.
The price of that miss was felt when Christie swept Bournemouth in front. The sting for Arsenal will be that it came from a set piece, with Justin Kluivert fractionally nudging Lewis Cook’s low corner back to Christie on the edge of the area. The strike was excellent, but Arteta will note how the scorer was operating unmarked.
The second came from a more glaring unforced error when Kiwior scuffed a back pass into Evanilson’s path and the latter suckered Raya into going to ground. He sought contact, received it, and Kluivert buried the penalty – no controversy about the decision, no doubt about the best team on the night.
The price of that miss was felt a moment later when Christie swept Bournemouth in front.
The sting for Arsenal will be that it came from a set piece, with Justin Kluivert fractionally nudging Lewis Cook’s low corner back to Christie on the edge of the area. The strike off an awkward bounce was excellent, but Arteta will note how the scorer was operating unmarked.
The second came from a more glaring unforced error when Kiwior scuffed a back pass into Evanilson’s path and the latter suckered Raya into going to ground. He sought contact, received it, and Kluivert buried the penalty.
