If the season ends with another one of those narrow misses for Arsenal, then Mikel Arteta is likely to shudder at the memory of this trip south. Looking at an open window overlooking the top of the table, his side stumbled hard against the frame.
It will be a while before we know the precise implications of what happened here, but any complaints with the referees must be weighed against a much clearer truth: Arsenal got what they deserved and so did Bournemouth.
This was an outcome rooted in one team’s self-sabotage and the other’s devastatingly effective control of circumstances, which is a sentiment that applies equally to events before and after the game’s decisive moment.
That happened on the half hour mark, at 0-0, when William Saliba initially received a yellow card from Robert Jones for pushing Evanilson from behind as the last line of Arsenal’s defence.
Naturally, that wasn’t the end: VAR intervened, Jones looked at the screen and yellow became red, 11 became 10 and an unbeaten campaign would soon suffer its first stain.
Bournemouth took advantage of two referee decisions in their favor to dispatch a flat Arsenal.
Justin Kluivert scores arrogant no-look penalty to cause more misery for Gunners
The result was a hard blow for Mikel Arteta’s men who aspired to climb to the top of the standings.
Of course, the traveling Arsenal fans would howl their reservations. They actually agreed that Jones was a ‘cheating jerk’, which was a peculiar interpretation of how he viewed the incident.
The contact was minimal, Evansilson’s reaction was exaggerated, but there was a foul and Saliba was the last man.
If Arsenal were feeling aggrieved, they would be better off directing their queries to Leandro Trossard, whose missed pass started the sequence, and Saliba, who became the third player to receive a red card this season.
Of course, the traveling Arsenal fans would howl their reservations. They actually agreed that Jones was a ‘cheating jerk’, which was a peculiar interpretation of how he viewed the incident.
The contact was minimal, Evansilson’s reaction was exaggerated, but there was a foul and Saliba was the last man.
Of course, the traveling Arsenal fans would howl their reservations. They actually agreed that Jones was a ‘cheating jerk’, which was a peculiar interpretation of how he viewed the incident.
The contact was minimal, Evansilson’s reaction was exaggerated, but there was a foul and Saliba was the last man.
If Arteta’s group ultimately falls short of Manchester City, Liverpool or anyone else in the long term, one wonders how closely they will be linked to such indiscipline.
The impact here was underlined by Ryan Christie’s second-half goal, before Justin Kluivert scored a penalty, but we might add that Bournemouth were doing well before the sending off.
Andoni Iraola, whose friendship with Arteta dates back to when they were 12 in San Sebastian, had prepared his team to press, squeeze and contract and it was working wonderfully.
They had lost three of their previous four games, but this was not a landslide victory. It was well designed and when decisions were favorable, it was delivered perfectly.
With the game progressing at a lukewarm pace, the crucial moment arrived: a reckless tackle by William Saliba on Evanilson as the Brazilian looked to run towards goal. A red card followed.
Defensive stalwart Saliba had to leave and Arsenal struggled to keep up with Bournemouth.
For Arteta, processing his first away defeat since last December, might prove a blip, but he was desperately poor on multiple fronts. Mainly in how his midfield was overrun and also in what it said about his ability to penetrate without Bukayo Saka, who has not yet recovered from his hamstring problem.
This match was always going to be a test of their punch in his absence and the first 25 minutes offered some worrying commentary.
Trossard, brought in as one of three changes to the side, offered no incision and Raheem Sterling, taking Saka’s place on the right, was too isolated to be effective.
When the latter was in a threatening position, after a quarter of an hour, he showed a flash of ingenuity by converting Marcos Senesi inside, but then, with the shot taken, he cut back with his first right foot and sent his cross. swallowed. Confidence is a good thing and Sterling’s can be measured in those moments.
By this time, Bournemouth had built a solid platform for the game. Iraola’s men put pressure on Arsenal’s midfield with backward maneuvers and, finally, long balls. Few have locked them in so well this season, but the risk, beyond exhausting themselves, was the space left for breaks.
Of course, that depended on the game remaining an 11-on-11 contest, which it wasn’t. While Saliba will regret bringing down Evanilson as the last man, he would not have been in that situation if Trossard had not missed a pass into his own goal to set up the chase.
That scenario changed the dynamics of the game. First, Sterling was hooked by the stability of Jakub Kiwior, the last small dagger in his efforts to find momentum, and then David Raya was forced to make a pair of saves from Antoine Semenyo and Marcus Tavernier.
The pressure built to a near miss early in the second half when Dango Ouattara found space behind Ben White and crossed the goal towards Semenyo. The best chance of the game so far went over the bar.
Dango added to Arsenal’s anxiety by converting White twice more in the next 10 minutes, before Iraola, bafflingly, replaced him. In a moment of respite, Gabriel Martinelli went one-on-one with Kepa Arrizabalaga on the opposite end but was unable to complete the robbery by shooting directly at the goalkeeper.
Antoine Semenyo missed a series of good opportunities as the Gunners held on
But when David Raya came up short following a pass from Jakob Kiwior, he committed a costly foul.
The price of that mistake was felt a moment later when Christie blasted Bournemouth into the lead.
The pain for Arsenal will be that it came from a set-piece, with Justin Kluivert slightly pushing Lewis Cook’s low corner towards Christie on the edge of the area. The shot after an awkward rebound was excellent, but Arteta will note how the goalscorer was operating without a mark.
The second came from a more glaring unforced error when Kiwior played a back pass into the path of Evanilson and the latter tricked Raya into falling to the ground. He looked for contact, received it and Kluivert buried the penalty.
