Result: Arsenal 3 – 0 Bournemouth
Competition: Premier League
Date: 4 May 2024
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Saka, Havertz
Subs: Ramsdale, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Jesus, Martinelli, Nketiah
In a truly dominant display at home, Arsenal were 3-0 winners over Bournemouth. Saka scored a penalty late in the first half after numerous spurned chances while Trossard sealed the game with a clean finish from the inside left channel to extend Arsenal’s lead at the top. Rice finished the rout late into injury time.
Arsenal lead Manchester City by 4 points though they have played 2 games more than the Blues.
Pre-Match
Mikel Arteta named an unchanged side from the ones that started against Tottenham and Chelsea, with the manager clearly confident in this preferred eleven.
This makes it Partey’s third consecutive appearance at the base of midfield while Tomiyasu, another victim of regular injuries, took up the rotating spot at left back.
Trossard was again trusted to make an impact on the left side of attack alongside Havertz up top.
First Half
Arsenal started the game at a quick pace, looking to make home advantage count. Bournemouth were well organised, definitely more so than earlier in the season, and worked well to push the Gunners wide.
The away side quickly retreated into a low block as Arsenal were incessant with their pressure and were rapid with their defensive recoveries.
How Arsenal did not get a goal within the first 25 minutes was beyond me. Odegaard, Trossard, Havertz, Saka, Tomiyasu and even Saliba had multiple attempts on goal but was denied by last ditch tackles and a sharp goalkeeper in Travers.
Their dominance was so supreme that at one point, the Gunners had 96% possession of the ball.
Bournemouth’s challenges in getting a foothold in the game was typified not just by their last ditch tackles, but also by Christie’s wild lunges to win the ball. The worst of the lot was a high boot on Saka which left the winger’s shin bleeding. On replay, how VAR didn’t think it was at least a yellow card was baffling.
Rice came closest to scoring as he was the recipient of a Havertz knock down but could only volley the ball wide. But it was the German who was key in breaking the deadlock just before half time.
Odegaard slipped Havertz in behind the Bournemouth defence with a delicious pass and the forward shifted the ball past an onrushing Travers who clipped his foot to gain Arsenal a penalty. Saka converted coolly from the spot. 1-0 Arsenal
Second Half
Arsenal were keen to build on the momentum of the first half but it wasn’t as smooth sailing with Bournemouth regaining some control to wrestle their way back into the game.
The home side still had chances early on with shots on goal by Havertz and Saka but it wasn’t one way traffic. Bournemouth’s had a great attempt by Solanke early in the half but it was well saved by Raya though the Gunners had reasons to be upset with the refereeing as the chance was borne out of 2 consecutive fouls on Partey and Odegaard in the lead up.
By the 70th minute, it was Havertz and Odegaard who stood out most with great hold up play, decision making and defensive work.
But it was the other supporting players who made a difference to kill off the game. Rice pounced on a loose deflected ball and laid it off for Trossard down the inside left channel. In usual clinical fashion, Trossard slotted it past the goalkeeper to make it 2-0 for Arsenal.
The away team hit back and had the ball at the back of Raya’s net minutes later. Raya scuffed a punched clearance and the opposition returned the ball with a venomous strike that hit the crossbar. The rebound was struck and deflected strike into goal. Worried fans were soon cheering as the goal was disallowed for a foul on Raya in the build up.
The scoreline could have been so much more. Martinelli, coming on for Trossard, had a great opportunity with his first involvement of tha game. He bore down on goal through a counter attack and hesitated for a fraction before being dispossessed in the box.
Gabriel stole the show with the best moment of the game towards the end. His half volley in the opposition’s box from a free kick attempt was top draw – hit perfectly with pace into the top corner. It was unfortunately ruled out for offside in the lead up, which would have added some gloss to an all round excellent performance by the team.
That gloss was added by Declan Rice who rifled in a shot deep in the box late in injury time. 3-0 Arsenal
How good were they? The 10 outfield players who started the game all had an attempt on goal.
Now the ball’s in Man City’s court to catch up to league leaders Arsenal.
I don’t know the name of that commentator who was commentating with, what sounds like, a teenage boy that he kept calling Lucy. But yeah, fuck him.
Huh?
Up the table topper up the league champions this season up the arsenal.COYG
Darren Fletcher (not the midfielder)
She’s been there for a while, incredibly annoying presence for me. Oh well…
Lucy Ward is a smart co-comnentator. ‘Fletch’ is a twat.
Yeah, always like what she has to say.
Darren Fletcher is annoying in general, but I didn’t think he did anything egregious today. He seemed to be willing Arsenal to score in the first half!
Ok Mr Mangan, let’s agree to disagree here!
That’s why I always turn the commentary off! They are never watching the same game as me anyway 😄
Who cares about the bloody commentary?
Exactly. We win 3-0 to stretch our lead and someone is banging on about the commentary.
A bit like having a wet dream and complaining about having to do the laundry the next day.
I don’t know why they always give me Andy Townsend on every Arsenal game. He always thinks we are incredibly lucky to get any call from the ref and the opposition always incredibly unlucky to get 99 decisions out of 100 against us.
Absolutely thrilled with the win and the scoreline. So maybe this will be an unpopular opinion!! But I felt the penalty we got was on the soft side, I kinda wish Havertz would have just tried to score directly instead of dragging his foot. I would have been furious if an opponent got a penalty like that.
That being said we clearly deserved to win!! Havertz is a giant, hard to imagine the team without him now.
I think the pen was soft and their goal shouldn’t have been disallowed- but we’d have likely been in the clear by about five goals if that pretty blatant red card tackle by Christie had been punished properly, so I shan’t lose any sleep over it.
Second game in a row no red card that should have been. Someone is going to get a serious injury soon.
I can see your point re. our pelanty, but their goal was absolutely rightly denied, in my eyes. Their attacker was looking right at Raya as he barged into him. A clear foul.
The boys played really well today – let’s keep this up and pile the pressure on City. COYG!
Not sure what you are talking about, the penalty was undisputed. If there’s ever any doubt, there’re many penalty calls that were much much softer than that. I would applause Havertz’s decision here as his angle is getting tight and 2 retreating defenders closing in. His decision in that split second shows football intelligence and wit.
Just liked all three comments haha. An amazing and very precious 3 points is all that matters 🙂
My thoughts exactly ReddotGunner. He was almost coming to the line and two defenders closing in – very good decision to drag his leg to get the contact. Nothing wrong with that. Loads of players would have made the same
I totally agree Havertz could have gone for the goal which was a simple tap in, but 3 points is what matters in the end esp during this time of the season.
P.S: Raya you lucky boy: you have my sympathies though, can’t do much when everyone is towering above him.
Every. Single. Game. Give it a rest.
I wish to speak the truth & the truth is he is a massive chink in our rumour and one day he will get exposed when he runs out of luck. I got downvoted similarly when Unai Emery was our manager, & he went on an unbeaten run of 26 games. Eventually he ran out of luck & I was vindicated.
I can’t decide if it’s Ramsdale’s mum’s account or Emi’s troll account. Either way, their ability to be wrong on every single comment is rather amusing. Even blogs calls them out.
The thing with this kind of penalty, is that it shouldn’t be, but it IS. This is much less a penalty in my eyes than when Saka’s penalty call got ruled out against Bayern. It’s obvious the player leaves his foot down and is already flying before contact is made. It’s ridiculous and should be outlawed, but for now, we have to live with it. Obviously I’m happy it helped us win, but overall football would be much better off if these weren’t given.
I actually thought this was a genuine trip–that it would have been quite difficult for Havertz to have avoided it, even if he had tried. The keeper’s leg was fully across Havertz’ path and Havertz was running towards the goal with control of the ball, not away having lost control–which is the classic Wayne Rooney/Jamie Vardy trailing leg penalty. This was a foul that almost certainly prevented a goal (technically irrelevant, but realistically very important) and so not a “soft” penalty at all.
The referees got most fo their decisions wrong today. More than us.
I’m sure there will be a lot of talk about the refereeing decisions that didn’t go Bournemouth’s way, but I doubt anyone will talk about the fact they should have been down to 10 men in the first half.
Have a look at a red card Eddie Nketiah got against Leicester in 2020 and tell me the challenge from the Bournemouth player was any different.
It’s mad that Havertz and Partey both got a yellow card before Cristie today — utterly atrocious.
That’s the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks our players have had dangerous tackles made on them without repercussions! But we all know what would have happened if that had been Granit Xhaka making those tackles. It is just a joke, really.
That Eddie red lives in my head on every call our opponents get away with…
I still haven’t got over Xhaka’s red card against Swansea.
Was going to add that one to my comment – but had to account for the XXRC metric
Nothing tops the rvp red vs barcelona.
Christie could easily have had two more yellows in addition to that obvious red and the one yellow he did receive.
On the world feed, the commentator expressed amazement that Christie’s card took so long; both thought he should have gotten three before that.
I thought Ryan Christie could have been sent off twice over for his challenges. It’s crazy to me that he wasn’t even booked when he went in high on Saka’s shin and literally drew blood.
The amount of times a Mustafi, Luiz, Almunia, etc hung a leg out and gave a away exactly the same penalty, only for the opposition to be called “clever” and our defender/goalkeeper “stupid” makes me not care in the slightest about Bournemouth’s feeling.
Mustafi! The bad old days!
Shout out to Bournemouth for putting in an incredible resilient performance. They defended like their lives was on the line. But my issue with a lot of teams in the league is that they never bring their A game when facing Man city. I heard Iraola came to watch our game against wolves in person in preparation for today’s game. Where’s that energy when facing man City. Aston villa came over to London and had the game of their lives but they turn up to the Etihad with their B team. In this run-in, I’ve not seen teams turn up… Read more »
Someone else mentioned this recently. Why do so many teams put in their best performance of the season against us then roll over against Citeh115. ☹️
It’s psychological. The media don’t help suggesting Man City winning the title is inevitable. I genuinely believe some teams come up against them and are resigned to losing even before stepping on the pitch. Liverpool had that affect on others before we won the title in 1989 and Man Ure had it at times under Ferguson
Fulham will be interesting g as against all other top teams at home this season they’ve believed they could win and have gone for it. See how they react mentally to Man City
I think that’s such a good point that I’m glad you said it twice.
I enjoyed reading the comment twice too 🙂
Albert Barese
Professional win. Good work, gents.
We winged it, but doesn’t matter at this stage. +3 to GD and to the points is all that matters.
Winged as in dominated? The win was never in doubt. Rice, Havertz, Ode, Saka were excellent.
Havertz was playing like he was a crossbreed from the Giroud and Van Persie races.
Oli van Peroud
He was outstanding again and every game he just keeps getting better. Love him.
A really handsome prick.
I think Christie not being sent off for 2 yellows for the about 9 fouls he committed, evens out the “soft penalty” also they had an attack where they nearly scored, and clearly Odegaard and Partey were fouled in the build up. The ref had a howler imo, for both sides. Raya was fouled imo when the bournemouth player pushed him not looking at the ball, it was silly of him, because Raya got away with one, an awful punched clearance. He hasnt looked great in the past two games. Hopefully he plays much better at Old Trafford, because he… Read more »
The foul on Raya seemed soft to me until I saw a replay postgame from a different angle that showed Solanke holding Raya’s left arm just before pushing him (contributing to the “awful” punch). Commentator Dermot the Ref suggested this justified the foul call.
That angle was very insightful. I was in the “soft” camp till I saw it.
I am all in on Wolves. HOWL! Running with the pack, Alpha males, red meat, cubs, bark at the moon, marking my territory. HOWL. Come on you Wandering Wolves of Wolverhampton. HOWL. A draw, a measly draw. 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 15-15, I don’t care. Stop the 115ers. Gnaw their ankles. Eat their young. HOWL. GROWL. WOOF. WOLVES!!!
Not a great performance and a lot of missed chances, but 3 points is all that matters now. Still in it and hoping for a shock this evening and hopefully Leno has a blinder next week.
Thought Rice was different class today. Came with a huge price tag but makes it look a bargain every week.
Not a great performance? I don’t understand these kinds of comments … we won three-nil, kept another clean sheet, and dominated the opposition in all departments. Their keeper had to make 6 saves, and they are a very good team.
You are right about Rice.
Not sure about all the downvotes. We did miss a lot and we were up against a really good opponent. Rice was brilliant as always, well worth the investment.
Not a good performance? 9 attempts, 24 shots, 3000 touches in the opposition box, 3 goals of course, scintillating and spirited display from about all of our players, is not enough for you?
Very similar to West Ham at home then…
They can’t all be 5-0. Is that what you are after? Bournemouth has been one of the stronger teams in the league for some time now. I also don’t get the entitlement and unreasonable expectations. Our performances have ranged from phenomenal to good.
Yes I don’t get these comments, mind boggling. Like do they think we play like ManURE/Chavski or something!!
When Fatgooner calls it an “excellent performance,” that has to end every argument.
Can’t remember a more uncomfortable 3-0 win but I’ll take it! Credit to the team for keeping on pushing and keeping their heads – we could have lost everything with a mistake or two around 60-70 minutes but we stayed calm and collected. Some decisions that went our way after so many have gone against us in the past. That pass that Odegaard laid off for Jesus leading up to the third goal – for someone who’d been running his socks off all game, kudos to our captain for leading the group in maintaining energy levels and composure. And chapeau… Read more »
i am very happy for the win. but wtf was that refereeing? seriously, how do they manage to do worse every time? when is this gonna change?
An excellent Arsenal performance that finally got the results that it deserved-but why did we make it so hard for ourselves?
Should have been 3- or 4-0 up at half time but wasteful finishing kept Bournemouth in it. The penalty was soft but we deserved it for the domination.
Finally got the job done in the second half. Good. And goal difference significantly improved.
Rice MOTM.
Now let’s dismantle United.
This is one of the top 3 best performances by Arsenal!!! What a magnificent, dominating performance!
We could have score 6,7 goals. Rice or Odegaard is MOTM. 10 for each Arsenal player. 10 for Arteta and the coaching staff. 10 for the fans at the stadium and at home🙂.
If I was in tha VAR room, I’ll just allow the Gabi goal…and deal with the critics as usual, until they die out.
Great win; I like how inevitable this Arsenal side is.
In other news I hope my second favourite team Wolverhampton Wanderers FC beats(or gets a draw) Man City today; Come on you wolves!!
A draw will be plenty – we don’t ask for much! We need to win our two games regardless and they aren’t turning around that +10 goal difference.
that’s a good word to define us. there are times in football in which a teams plays like shit for the entire match and only in the last 10 minutes of the game actually have a go and try to win it. today i felt like we played with that intensity and desire from the first minute. 5 minutes in and we already had them against the ropes. a win was inevitable. remember how hard starts used to be for us? more inevitability please!!
We look like champions, let’s hope it happens to put it in a very understated way.
I don’t know if we will win the league but what a ride we had with this team. Tense at 1-0 but what a first half and really nice goals in the end!
I am so confused with the rules of the EPL football.
The ref and his VAR team managed to get the opposite of what I thought it should have been, in 90% of the cases.
Amazing
Fro once, Arsenal can not complain about the referee. The penalty was soft, so was the cancelling of their goal.
What about the obvious red card they didnt get?
Why does anyone think it’s a soft penalty. The contact was clear, Havertz didn’t dive nor fell theatrically. The rule book doesn’t say that player has to evade fouls.
I for once think both referee and VAR were right for canceling the goal, yes Bournemouth fan may feel disappointed, it’s all for fair play. Solanke clearly obstructed Raya without any intention of challenging for the ball, he never looked at the ball the whole time, and pulled, ever so lightly, Raya when he’s about to jump.
I also think Raya would have caught that ball comfortably had Solanke not impeded him. And if he caught the ball, Semenya wouldn’t have a chance to score. The right call.
When Partey and Tomi is in the team and game match fit I watch these games with so much calmness. Great win and we move.
This is a Title winning team…this season or next.
From the back 4 of leichsteiner, Luiz, mustafi and kolasinac to what we have right now, we have made a great progress!
Maybe it’s me, but if we win this league, then has Kai Havertz possibly played the biggest part in getting us to the title ? He’s been so good recently & so reliable & fit à la Benny Blanco but honestly this is some team !
Don’t know about you, but that pathetic Wolves capitulation has dampened my belief that any team Cheaty still have to play will make them drop points. Completely deflated my optimism. Bastards!
Agent Jazz Hands will give it a good go.
Fulham is where it will happen