Arsenal defeats Bournemouth to keep pace with Manchester City at the top of the table.
Arsenal defeated Bournemouth 3-0 at home in the 36th round of the 2023-24 Premier League at the Emirates Stadium in London, England, on Thursday (Aug. 4) at 8:30 p.m. ET.
The win keeps Arsenal atop the table with 26 wins, five draws and five losses (83 points). They extended their lead over second-place Man City (79 points) to four points. However, City has played two fewer games. Arsenal is still struggling to win the title on its own. They can only hope that Wolverhampton can beat City on May 5 at 1:30 am.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was all smiles on this day as he faced off against his best friend, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola. The two managers hail from the Basque Country in Spain and grew up together at Antiguo as three-year-olds, alongside Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen.
After going their separate ways, the two managers have come full circle and are meeting for the second time in the Premier League. The first meeting last September saw Arsenal run out 4-0 winners, and Arteta had a smile on his face on this occasion.
Arsenal put in a dominant performance against Bournemouth. They spent most of the first half in Bournemouth’s half, scoring the opening goal from the penalty spot, and then, despite being out of sorts in the second half, they took control of the game.
Arsenal maintained just over 55% possession and created nearly three times as many chances as Bournemouth with 23 shots on goal to seven, extending their winning streak to three games.
Arsenal will line up in a 4-3-3 formation. Leandro Trosar-Kai Havertz-Bukayo Saká, Declan Rice-Thomas Partey-Martin Ødegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu-Gabriel Magalhaes-William Saliba-Ben White, David Luiz.
Bournemouth will line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Dominic Solanke, Justin Kluivert, Alex Scott, Anthony Semenyo, Ryan Christie, Lewis Cook, Dango Owatara, Marcos Senesi, Ilya Zabalny, Aiden Smith, Mark Crabbers.
Arsenal took control of the game from the start, maintaining a high line and pressing hard up front to try and get into Bournemouth’s box early on. In the first 15 minutes, Arsenal had seven shots on goal compared to Bournemouth’s one.
Bournemouth, who were applying a bit of pressure, seemed to be taking their chances. In the 17th minute, Solanke won the ball in a 토토사이트 pressing move up front and found himself one-on-one with the keeper, but was denied by the defense.
Arsenal’s offense continued. Bournemouth briefly looked like they were finding their stride, but Arsenal continued to break up the opposition’s offense as if it were a half-court game. In the 26th minute, Pati in front of the box had a left-footed shot on goal that was saved by Travers, and in the 37th minute, Ödegaard’s cross was flicked on by Haberts and Rice tried to hit it hard with his right foot, but it went wide.
Arsenal, who had been getting more shots on goal but were unable to find the back of the net, took the lead on the stroke of half-time. In the 42nd minute, Harberts, who had made his way through the defense, was brought down by a Travers tackle in a one-on-one after receiving a pass from Ödegaard. The referee pointed to the spot, and Saka stepped up to the spot kick and calmly converted to give the visitors the lead.
The second half started with a back and forth between the two teams. Bournemouth took advantage of a lull in Arsenal’s pressure up front and began to move up into the attacking third, while Arsenal began to find space in the high Bournemouth defense.
Bournemouth started to take control. Arsenal’s back four. In the 18th minute, Cluivert found space behind the high Arsenal defense on the left flank, but his shot went wide of the target. On the counterattack in the 20th minute, Cluivert kept the ball and had another chance from the front of the box but was denied by the defense.
But it was Arsenal who rattled the net. The Gunners capitalized on their chances to widen the gap. In the 25th minute, midfielder Ödegaard’s pass was deflected off a defender’s foot and into the path of Rice, who curled a left-footed shot from inside the box past Trosar.
Bournemouth took Scott off in the 26th minute for Philip Billing, and it looked like they were going to equalize soon after. In the 29th minute, Christie’s high bouncing ball from the right side of the box was punched away by Raya, but the ball hit the post. Semenyo slotted the ball back in for a second goal, but VAR showed Solanke interfering with Laya and the goal was ruled out for a Bournemouth foul.
The Gunners then introduced Gabriel Martinelli in the 36th minute and Gabriel Jesus in the 40th minute to steady the ship, while Bournemouth responded with Enes Wijnald in the 36th minute and Max Aarons and Romain Fabre in the 44th minute.
In the 41st minute, following an Arsenal corner, Magalhaes found the back of the net with a left-footed half-volley after a cross from the edge of the box. However, the goal was disallowed for offside by Haberts, who had earlier been involved in a contested aerial ball.
Bournemouth pushed forward in the closing stages of the game, but Arsenal held out until the final whistle, with Rice scoring the winner six minutes into stoppage time.