Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Merino, Trossard, Sterling, Havertz
Subs: Setford, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Jorginho, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Martinelli, Kabia, Jesus
Arsenal missed the opportunity to go top after suffering their first defeat (and third red card) of the season after losing 2-0 to Bournemouth on Saturday, thanks to second half goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert.
Mikel Arteta made three changes to the team that beat Southampton before the international break, with Ben White, Mikel Merino and Leandro Trossard all coming into the side.
Bukayo Saka missed out on the matchday squad altogether after suffering a hamstring issue on England duty, although Gabriel Martinelli was deemed fit enough for the bench despite a calf concern.
After a cagey start from both teams, Bournemouth had the first sight of goal after 16 minutes when Alex Scott intercepted an underhit pass from David Raya and laid off Antoine Semenyo, who blazed over from 20 yards.
With the game trudging along, a difficult evening was about to get even more difficult for Arsenal when William Saliba was dismissed after bringing down Evanilson who suddenly found himself through on goal.
The Brazilian striker was initially offside in the passage of play, but because Trossard played him through with a horrible back pass, he couldn’t be offside and Saliba pulled him down in desperation.
The Frenchman was shown a yellow card by referee Rob Jones before VAR recommended a second check at the monitor – where the decision was upgraded to red card – their third of the season already.
Saliba will now be suspended for next week’s clash against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium.
Despite that moment of madness, Arsenal did have a chance to take the lead when Sterling did well to stand up his full back and cross, with the ball falling to Merino whose snapshot was deflected wide by Milos Kerkez.
Bournemouth had two more chances before half time, with Semenyo stinging Raya’s gloves after skinning Sterling with some nice movement, before Raya was called into action again to save from Marcus Tavernier after spilling a routine cross.
It ending up being a disappointing game for Sterling who was then sacrificed for Jakub Kiwior as Arteta planned his tactical reshuffle ahead of half time.
After the break, there was another chance for the hosts who should have been ahead when Dango Ouattara found Semenyo unmarked at the back post, but the Cherries forward rushed his finish and fired over from close range.
From that point forward, Arsenal were typically resolute in defence and restricted the hosts to very little and looked to change the game themselves with Martinelli replacing Trossard after 65 minutes.
The change almost paid instant dividends when Merino pounced on a poor pass out from Kepa and played Martinelli through on goal, although his finish wasn’t convincing enough and the Spanish goalkeeper was able to set himself and save to spare his own blushes.
But as is often the case in football, your misses are punished and just moments after Martinelli should have put Arsenal ahead – Bournemouth took the lead through Ryan Christie.
The set piece kings were undone after a brilliantly worked corner from the Cherries, with Justin Kluivert laying off a short corner back to the Scotland international who curled into the top corner. 1-0.
Things went from bad to worse for the Gunners when a terrible backpass from Kiwior allowed Evanilson to sprint through on goal, before he was fouled by Raya who came out to try and stop the forward – with referee Rob Jones giving a penalty.
Kluivert stepped up and converted the spot kick, shooting into the bottom right corner with Raya diving left and effectively secured all three points in doing so. 2-0.
Arteta threw on Ethan Nwaneri and Gabriel Jesus with ten minutes left to play but it was too little too late, with neither player able to affect the game and Bournemouth comfortable defending their lead.
It was a disappointing day for Arsenal who were missing the creativity and end product of two key players, but were off-colour from the first whistle and playing yet another game with ten men will be of huge frustration.
With fixtures coming thick and fast, they need to bounce back from their first away defeat of 2024 ahead of another busy week; both domestically and in Europe.
F
International break costs us dearly….. 😞
Yeah, Rice on the right 8 was awkward positionally in first few minutes. All of our corners were outswinger as unavailable Saka paid the real England/English tax.
We can’t keep blaming others. We’ve had three reds in three games; that’s on us
Shut the fuck up you whore.
Maybe we could use other teams getting actual yellow cards and subsequently reds for second yellows instead of a “talking to” from the refs. That’s all on the refs.
Ps Saliba was a stone wall red. Except where a ref mysteriously decides that White( read walker) would have made up ground to cover Saliba ( read Dias) and we would be talking how the ref should have sent off the city man and how technology is the worst thing since sliced bread and how technology (not the bizarre decision) is ruining football
International football just pisses me right orf………..
Echoes of last season where we did st*pid things in the early stages of the season, like drop points to 10 men Fulham at home, only to find it costly in the long run. To be honest, I personally was not enthused about starting Merino — Rice — TP5 together, especially without Saka up front to make up for the lack of creativity in such a midfield combination. Worse still, they were played out of position! Even before the red card the play was turgid, lacked a spark of creativity, and no one could HOLD on to the ball and… Read more »
Yeah, it’s clear that any team missing their 2 best players should dominate any other PL league team. Good assessment.
What are you on about?
My thoughts exactly. Without trying to denigrate Bournemouth even with a man down the game was there to be won if we are a bit of creativity to our midfield. Nwaneri for any of Partey Rice or Merino for the second half would have made the difference. It says something that the only real forward movement of the ball after we went 2-0 down was from either Nwaneri or Harvert.
Agreed, bad line up. I still think we have the quality to have won the game if not for the red (which I don’t think we can argue with, even if it hurts with all the shit decisions we’ve had so far this season). The Nwaneri one is strange, hes looked good enough to step in and, if Arteta doesn’t think he’s good enough, then you have to ask why we don’t have cover that is. Injuries put us in a tough position before the game but clearly we could and should have managed that situation better. All about how… Read more »
This is not ironic. Support your team in the hardest moments.
🤣
Have your little victory lap. Enjoy these days. They don’t come around often, do they?
Twenty years waiting to be good enough and then 3 red cards in 8 games. Thanks Saliba and PGMOL.
Nwaneri should be starting
Agree r.e. Nwaneri – think he should have been RCM with Rice at #6 he’s good enough.
Why are we so poor when down to 10 men? We massively go on the back foot and seem to shit ourselves. Was the same against Brighton. The City game was understandable as the are a quality side. Under Wenger I felt that we still went for teams and often got results. Now, we are so negative. Says it all that in 17 games we’ve had a player sent off under Arteta we’ve only won 3!
Because they know that the final league is decided by 1pt. The pressure is immense every game.
Neither Merino nor Sterling deserves to start over Nwaneri. And Trossard might have to accept he’s better of as a super sub with the odd starts. Something has to be done about our discipline and we have no one else to blame but ourselves.
I can’t emphasize enough how much we need Odegaard back. People say Saliba is the the most important, I think we can now see it’s the skipper.
And by the way, why not try out Zinny in that Odegaard role? Granted, he will not give you the same workrate as Øde, but his technical ability and ability to pick a pass can more than make up for his lack of defensive prowess.
Or Nwaneri. Give the boy a chance!!!
Agreed to all except the Trossard part. If Martineli plays himself back to the point where he gets in from of Trossard then yes, until then Trossard is our best option from the left and I think statistically he is still our best finisher.
*deep inhale*…. Lets move on to the next one.
The fact that we were wasting time against the mighty Bournemouth at 0-0, instead of going for the win says it all. Title winners don’t do that. Don’t tell me City would ever have done that. We did it at home to Brighton too. Such a negative attitude to adopt.
very annoying
GET IN THE FUCKING PICKPOCKETS!
To steal Howard Webb’s phone ideally
The story continues Arsenal and the Red card
That one’s on Saliba, poor positioning. Was 100% a red.
who else gets a red for that? my comment doesn’t show up anyway
Saliba got the red but it’s more of Trossard’s fault, what type of pass was that?
Harsh as he wasn’t expecting that type of ball from Trossard.
Schoolboy defending not harsh at all. His only job there is to be goalside.
Poor defending, but I think he thought their player was in an offside position and didn’t expect Trossard to play him in ?
He was keeping the line for offside
That was a brain fart moment from Trossard, not entirely Saliva’s fault. If you have played football, you will know your first instinct as a defender is to protect your goal and he clearly acted on impulse.
I made it as far as the national league south. Saliba had one job, to stay goal side. He’s on the half way line, can’t play his man offside. Forwards lose the ball, he’s the last man. Stay goal side touch tight.
But almost every other team is let off. That’s what drives me mad. The sendings off are legit – but they only happen to us. If that’s Stones – he gets a warning. Maguire gets a warning. Whichever cunt Chelsea play gets a warning. Van Djke gets a warning. The letter of the law is so consistently reserved for Arsenal players.
It was 100% a red. It was poor play, he got the wrong side of his man and brought him down.
I’m not saying it wasn’t. I’m saying every other team constantly gets away with red card offences. How many times have our opponents been given a pass on 100% red cards? It’s all the time. City never get anyone sent off no matter what they do. When our players get sent off, everyone else says “it was the correct decision by the letter of the law”. But that law only ever applies to us. Other clubs get to break it.
We just like finding ways to shoot ourselves in the foot 2 seasons ago, we took everyone by surprise, had a blinding start to the season and faltered when Saliba got injured. Last season, reverse was the case; messed around in the first few games and first half of the season, then finished strong! Apparently, this time around, we have decided to let red cards become the thing that makes it easier for our opponents since we have become too strong for about 80% of the teams in this division. I am really pissed; Brighton, City, Bournemouth, all were winnable… Read more »
Why on earth do we need three Central Midfielders against Bournemouth?
Nnwaneri is the obvious replacement for Odegaard especially when Saka is not on the pitch.
Arteta needs to be bolder to attack if he wants to join the elite coaches who win leagues and cups.
I think last 2 seasons scarred him! We played the best, free-flowing football in this country. But I think that collapse has seen Arteta adopt a safety-first approach. It’s been evident for a while now and it frustrates me sometimes, if I am being honest.
Absolutely. Am surprised he didn’t leant that from Guardiola.
100 % agree. Nwaneri should of started that game. Partey/merino not partey + merino.
This is Arteta’s Arsenal. Every year we play too conservative and then let the handbrake off when crisis hits. Eventually we revert back to Arteta ball, which is just too much safety first. We also have become cynical, time wasting and poor fouls, I don’t need to see that.
Utterly shit. From top to bottom. From Arteta to all the players involved. I really didn’t think that we were still capable of such things.
PTSD from lockdown came back hard today.
Until when will we keep blaming the refs and start keeping our heads. Even before the sending they didn’t turn up at all. Shocking performance.
You are the first to mention the ref in this thread.
Have a look at the comments before commenting yourself. No one is blaming the ref. It’s anger at the performance.
Thats it. Its impossible to compete anymore. Im not dissapointed one bit, just sad that what i thought was going to be a fun season isnt for everyone. I csncelled my tv sub as im not putting one cent in the pockets of those responsible for this bullshit and so should everyone else too.
Because…? Can’t tell what you are mad about.
At this point, this discipline issue is worrisome!
Why do we keep finding ourselves in these kind of situations??
Abysmal performance from us!
66% of our red cards have been for existing.
We have no one to blame but ourselves there. Bad pass by Leo puts Willy under pressure, he makes the wrong decision and was the last man standing. If it had been the other way round we would have expected a Bournemouth red. To be honest even if it had stayed 11/11 I doubt we would have won, we were well below par and badly missed Martin and Saka. Mikel needs to iron out these silly red cards, can’t get the refs the slightest reason to send a player off!
And also terrible back pass from Jakub that caused a penalty
Or at least be tactically agile. With our midfield today, a 4231 was a better option with double pivot to control game. Or at least put Sterling on the left.
We need a striker so bad it’s insane. We are where we were with Wenger for his last ten years. Always a player short.
Striker isn’t the problem. Three industrious mids and no one pulling the strings is. Even before the red we had nothing resembling goal danger. We couldn’t even execute one-twos.
A team full of match weary internationals versus lads who have been shooting the breeze for weeks. Just saying
Yeah, the international break is akin to us having a midweek CL game.
This was never going to be an easy game with Øde and Saka out.
A really shit day at the office, but we go again.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we need an out and out striker or at least a proper goal scorer because, as we keep finding out, shit happens.
I thought a number of players today were very poor but also Arteta needs to have a plan B. It’s all very well to keep possession and pass the ball until you score but sometimes it’s just nor possible.
Finally, I think Arteta needs to be a bit braver with his rotations.
A wretched, pathetic, kamikaze performance that got what it deserved.
We did nothing up front and then handed them the game with insane defensive errors. What the hell was Trossard doing with that pass?
And, of course, we were screwed by the officials yet again. Was it a CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERROR by the ref in not initially red-carding Saliba? No. So the yellow should have stood. But, as it’s Arsenal, Saliba had to go. They are all out to screw us.
Saliba is going to get a nice rest now.
Sorry but that is a sending off all day long, we can have no complaints about the ref today.
No it wasn’t. The Bournemouth forward was a long way from goal and White could have covered. If the ref initially gives a red then fair enough: but he didn’t. VAR should not have got involved. It’s not the job of VAR to re-referee a match. IT WAS NOT A CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERROR BY THE REFEREE.
VAR was wrong. The only one who denying Evanilson a clear goalscoring opportunity was himself since he’s absolutely crap.
Yeah I’m with you, the ref thinks its a yellow no way VAR should be getting involved.
And why is Howard Webb attending games, surely that is just putting more pressure on the refs
This is the perfect summary of it. And if it had been a City player, this is what we would have been hearing from PGMOL. VAR gives them the option to take their time and influence the game – and the league – exactly how they want. The premier league is no longer a real competition. It’s not decided by the athletes.
Exactly. It looks like the title is going to be decided by the whims of rubbish referees rather than the skill of the players.
Trossard rubbish. Did nothing then got Saliba sent off along with his stupid kicking the ball away at City.
What’s the point of bringing in Kiwior in the first place?
It’s not as if we are trying to protect a lead or something. Partey should have moved to RB while a creative midfielder or attacker is brought on.
Totally agree. Bournemouth were not really threatening us, and even if you wanted to bunker Sterling’s pace up top would leave you options and keep them a bit honest. Tactically suspect all day from Arteta.
Honestly, tiresome is about the only way I can sum up much of the season so far. I’m fed up with extenuating circumstances like predictable injuries, freak injuries, ridiculous red cards, and debatable red card decisions like today stopping us from seeing what this team is really about. I’m not asking us to walk the league here, all I want is for us to not have half our squad out injured, and to be able to and keep 11 players on the fucking pitch, so that we actually get a chance to see what we’re made of. This is probably… Read more »
It’s weird that after eight games it feels like we’ve already squandered the minimal margin of error anyone gets from City. We need to stabilize and go on a run of dominance to regain the vibes, but until we solve the creativity problem it feels hard to imagine.
Our depth is absolute ass. Rubbish, mid-table players as backup.
We make a lot of stupid mistakes. 3 red cards already this season is a disgrace, refs fault or not. I switched it off after the red because we’ve been here so many times before. First time in a long while I’ve literally just switched off an Arsenal game.
We won’t win anything again this season.
We might have been flat but the team would have won eventually until the red . In every game you get a chance and unfortunately the one chance we had Martinelli miss it .
1. Trossard stupid backpass
2. Saliba clumsiness
3. Martinelli doesn’t know how to score
4. Another stupid backpass from Kiwior
5. Two error from Raya
6. Players come back injured from Nations League
I looooveee UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE.
UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE IS THE BEST COMPETITION IN THE UNIVERSE
I HOPE UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE WILL KEEP ON RUNNING FOREVER
I WANT TO MARRY UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE
I didnt know i had a twin brother 😀
Nations league returns in just a couple of weeks 😉
One thing that’s worrying are that we are becoming booring as hell. I know some starters are out but we could at least try.
We hade one shot before the red so for me it wasn’t the red that made us sit deep and not try. We just sat a little deeper from the original gameplan and that’s a real worry. We should go to Bournemouth, take the initiative and beat them back.
We need a more positive game plan or we won’t be anywhere near title in may.
I hate being too reactionary after a flat performance, but I believe Arteta should start getting worried about his job. It’s been 5 years, and it’s not like he started managing a Championship club to begin with. Even before the red card Arsenal was rubbish, no creativity whatsoever in the final third
That sounds quite reactionary to be fair. No club wins every single football match, even the best teams have off days.
The responsibility needs to be with someone, and I don’t think it’s any one player in the team, but the coach who can’t seem to figure out the right formation. For a few matches now, especially since Odegaard’s injury, there’s no transitional fluency between attack and defence, and that was extremely obvious today
We’d have won the league the last two seasons if the league didn’t contain a financially doped petro state sovereign wealth funded turd of a club that has ruined football for everyone. I think it’s pretty extreme to be stating Arteta should be worried about his job. In saying that, we have been pretty unenjoyable to watch the last 3 league matches.
While I don’t disagree, I think it’s also a cop-out – we lost plenty of points last season where we didn’t need to. Ultimately what I was trying to say is it’s less of an issue with individual players as it is with tactical rigidity. All the players on the field know how to kick a ball, I just think they weren’t set up properly for the game
It’s the damn 2 week breaks. The team isn’t together, the players are changing routines – if they’re not just getting just plain injured. I agree Nwaneri looked great and gave us something when he came on – but I think you do exactly that with a very young player so that he’s not making the early mistakes that affect the game & can come in and exploit the late game opportunities. These first games after the useless internationals are our toughest challenge going forward. We donate our entire first team while others lose almost no one – stay on… Read more »
Bournemouth achieved their first clean sheet in eight matches.
Arsenal received their third red card in eight matches.
Like, what the fuck was that?! Two main players are injured, and suddenly we don’t know how to play? What are the odds that we are going to sign another left back in January?
Trossard on the bench next week. This is not volleyball , opponents are allowed in your half.
Nwaneri looks potent;the future is bright. So, have a drink , (even if it’s water) and enjoy your Saturday.
My silver lining this evening is that I think I love you
Don’t like blaming individual players, but Kiwior is done. He cost us at City with that desperate lunge that led to the equalizer. Mikel also has to improve his in-game management: the substitutions should have come earlier: Nwaneri and Martinelli for Trossard and Partey, with a double pivot of Rice and Merino. Saliba has had a poor week, he should have relied on his speed to put the player off. Going a goal behind is better than being a man short. Now he banned for 3 matches, right? Overall, it’s been a tricky start to the season for us: injuries… Read more »
Yep, looked like Saliba brought his recent performance with France into this game. That he did not back himself to recover that position and so panicked, is a bit of a worry.
And also not savvy; payers should have the auto reaction on to what’s the worst that can happen. They score: 1-0 down at halftime is not a problem worse than one man down
Poor performance from the off, looked all over the place with the ball.
A terrible pass followed by an inevitable sending off just made things from bad to worse. Added to that Saliba missing the Liverpool match.
These red cards have cost a potential 7 points and we will be way off the pace if it continues. Our discipline needs to change.
Really need Marty back.
I’m tired if that keague. It’s rigged and corrupt. No other way to tell it.
Well, that was total shit, and those wussy, ugly, pathetic shirts summed up the whole thing. I never want to see us play like that again and I never want to see those shirts again either. Horrible. EVERYTHING IS SHIIIIIIITT!
Howard Webb literally said a few days ago that VAR was doing much better apart from situations where it is getting involved in judgement calls and they were telling them not to and to leave it as referees call. Fast forward to today and all that goes out of the window. Referre has made a judgement call and no need for VAR to be involved. No way he cant have seen all the factors involved in the incident and he has made his call accordingly. Cant wait ot hear what Webb has to say this time.
Howard Webb texted The VAR referee in real time to make the referee rewatch that and send Saliba off.
If saliba is the last man (and fouls), it’s a clear red. Not sure if he fouled though from the angles shown on tv, but he sure was the last man
Missing our 3 best players now
day 2859 of martinelli wasting golden chances, rice not working as an 8, partey being sloppy, white getting done by some random speedy winger, us not having proper wide forward replacements, nor a backup for odegaard. y’all go crazy with the downvotes and try to force the positive narrative, but it’s always the same story. blindless support to things that clearly dont work, and we’re back to 2017. thank god our coaching staff is great and i’m confident we will learn from this, although admittedly a few months too late. but having to read this comment section is boring af.… Read more »
I thought Partey was solid enough, the better of the 3 in my opinion. too many changes to the team affected our flaw and patterns. Silly red for Saliba, its the first half let him go then recover the goal if you are down than getting sent off so early and screw the entire game for the whole team. Sterling, didn’t work, early days yes but man needs to learn this ain’t Chelsea we press and defend as a team, can’t lose the ball and hope the defenders will get it and just walk about. Kiwior, poor lad, he’s never… Read more »
He’s too old to learn. Was a bad decision to bet on him this window.
If you found a more constructive way to disagree with people you might not be so bored.
In agreement except for Partey. He is the only one of the 3 midfield players that actually played well today.
Wtf was Howard Webb doing in the audience. It’s like having Putin watching the US presidential debate
How does that analogy work on any level? If its ridicule of Webb in general so be it; but I cannot picture in my mind Webb being the slightest bit interested in watching a debate between Imperialist, Colonial, Settler white supremacists.
Shitty game. We go next !
The selection didn’t look right. I know it’s a spur of the moment thing but why risk getting sent off so early in the game? Better risk going – no guarantee he’d have scored – 1-0 down than1 man down. We were slow and ponderous before the sending off and Arteta has no idea how to play with 10 men and he should be used to it! Need more pace up front
Bad day at the office, we were not doing well even before the red but after the red it got worse. I get the shortage of right backs but what about a back 3? White is a right-footed center-back who plays right back, the better choice would have been tucking him into CB, with Gabriel and Califouri (who is also a center-back) then drop a forward (sterling as it was to the bench and bring on GJ (better defender than Sterling). There was a time I saw Sterling walking back after losing the ball before we went to 10 and… Read more »
He was in an offside position but Trossard played the ball so he can’t be offside.
Terrible performance. Referee screw up or not, doesn’t matter. We were garbage and deserved to lose. 1. Trossard doesn’t seem able to concentrate for a full 90min. Though Saliba should learn to live and fight another day. 2. Kiwior I think is done at arsenal. 3. Martinelli needs to go to shot finishing school. If he scores this chance we win the game. 4. Jesus seems intent on taking on the whole defence despite failing again and again. 5. I initially thought sterling loan was good business but boy does it look terrible right now! 1st loss in over a… Read more »
I agree with all 5 points
Sterling somehow just looked wrong!!!
The ref was a cunt.
And he still is a cunt.
Oh
It’s so clear to me that under no circumstances will the referees allow us to win the league. We have a 0% chance. What we do is irrelevant, they will do just enough to ensure we don’t win.
Looking forward to the media delight and backlash.
Yes the red card was pathetic.
Yes Bournemouth were set up well.
Yes this might appear an overreaction but this loss feels a little bit like last season’s villa loss and couple that with a few more lapses in concentration losing a few more games and the chance for the league has gone for another year.
We never make it easy for ourselves.
Next rule change should be: if you deny a clear scoring chance, it’s a pen. Giving a red is the wrong punishment. If that happened in the box it would be a pen and could continue with 11 and you’d be eligible to play the next matches.
If you foul 5 vs 2 and are not the last man, it’s just a yellow for a tactical foul, even if the chance is better than in this case
Couldn’t agree more. I genuinely think sendings off ahould only be for violent conduct. If denying a goal scoring chance is a penalty, then the balance is perfect. You lose a chance – you get a chance.
Sendings off ruin games and most of the time they’re just petty technicalities.
I know this is an Arteta-fest group so I expect a lot of thumbs down but fuck it. This guy won’t get us over the line. There’s something about him that’s too conservative, too controlling, too scared, too risk averse. You need all that to do something amazing. This guy started with a midfield of Partey, Rice, and Merino and then two wingers in Sterling and Trossard who are not quite the paciest. You can understand why the start was so poor and disjointed and slow. Then we go a man down and we handled it pretty well until he… Read more »
A very poor game. Mistakes and errors cost us.
Missing 3 of front 4 huge…but also we were passive.
Tross, Saliba, Sterling, Raya, Kiwior all making mistakes… Ok that’s bad but no drive going forward either.
We need to start winning rather than trying to control games and not losing.