Arsenal suffered a 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth this evening in a match where the team appeared off-colour.
Bournemouth was always going to be a tricky opponent, and they matched Arsenal across the pitch in the opening minutes. The game remained even until William Saliba was sent off for stopping Evanilson’s goal-scoring opportunity after a poor pass from Leandro Trossard put the defender in a difficult situation.
The red card disrupted Arsenal’s game plan, yet they still pushed to score the opening goal, with Mikel Merino missing a key chance.
Bournemouth took advantage of their numerical superiority, dominating possession as Arsenal struggled to adjust without their best defender. David Raya had to make an important save to keep the score level at halftime.
The second half saw Bournemouth start brightly, with Antoine Semenyo threatening early. Arsenal found it difficult to gain control with ten men, and the Cherries continued to dominate.
Shortly after Kepa Arrizabalaga nearly gifted Arsenal an opener, Bournemouth then went forward and capitalised by scoring from a well-executed corner.
Things went from bad to worse for Arsenal when Raya fouled Evanilson after a poor pass from Jakub Kiwior, resulting in a penalty that Justin Kluivert converted.
This was one of Arsenal’s worst away performances in a long time, and the early red card certainly didn’t help their cause.
Honestly we didn’t play well before the red card also. Merino seems nothing special.
We were shite even before Saliba’s sending off. That being said, I don’t even blame him but Trossard for making a stupid and unnecessary back pass which landed Saliba in trouble. The same Trossard reduced us to 10 men against City. Can’t wait to see him go back to the bench where he belongs.
It looks like another usual season for us again, we never learn
Bad day at the office by all (with the exception of Partey who was immense) from the manager to the goalkeeper to the defence and attack. The keeper for once had a nightmare, Saliba made a poor judgement of error. Martinelli proved what Martinelli is about and nothing at all worked today as it should have. Yes we have players back after an international break but so did Bournemouth. Not for the first time, we let an average team give us a lesson. Will it be our undoing again this season? Brighton and Bournemouth took vital.points off us, when they should not. And we gifted them the points.
Stop blaming Merino, he is a good box-to-box midfielder not a good attacking midfielder. Why on Earth does always 3 defensive midfielder and leave Nwaneri on the bench all the times??? I swear Nwaneri is far better than all our midfielders in terms of creativity excep Odegaard.
Also, does having a red card mean we must add another defender??? Maghraes, Ben white and Calafiori cannot form a back three against Burnemouth????
I don’t know why Arteta panicks every time the team gets a red card. Bournemouth was winnable with 10 vs 11 with a better coach.
Alert me when Arteta wins the EPL.
@clemento, Wonderful observation and comment. I just can’t understand why arsenal as a big club can not beat smaller teams with 10 men. Like you pointed out Nwaneri is far better than almost all our midfielders bar none. The boy can play against any opponent. In fact it was when he came in that we started playing as a team.
Yes, if the opportunity to Introduce another defender is available, and if not, your defensive structure Should, and MUST be maintained. Otherwise, opponent will bypass your midfielders, and exploit the loophole of one defender lost. However, a player who has steam, has tricks and ability to move the ball forward and hold the ball when not going forward in NEEDED to motivate the other players to battle the game.
Situation of red card would come, BUT no Arsenal manager has been able to have a tactic to survive it.
Wenger had the best ten men team in the League in his early days, when those French guys were accumulating reds.
He did and you are right Jax but its a little different now.
Back to earth with a bump? It was never likely to be the walkover for Arsenal that some fans seemed to think in the pre-match forecasts but, in the circumstances, a fair result in the end.
Apart from Martinelli’s miss Arsenal didn’t really do much (even prior to the Saliba red). There’s no out and out striker on the bench to come on in emergencies. While we all hope (against hope) that Jesus will do something most of us know he probably won’t, unfortunately.
However, it’s only eight games in despite today’s result and Arsenal has injured players to return. Perhaps one of the results will also go at least some of our way tomorrow – you never know in football (as Arsenal found out today).
That said, it’s going to be a long, hard season. I don’t think all of us quite realised that though judging by some of the regular posts on JA, but hopefully we all do now.
We can’t afford to be so reliant on odegaard and saka. I think we had enough ability within those players and options provided by the squad to have won the game, but we didn’t look right tactically. Trossard had a bad game, so it’s easy to say afterwards, but martinelli probably would have done better from the start today with trossard in the middle, as he’s played recently.
Partey-Rice-merino didn’t really work today (though Partey did play well from what I saw) as the problem was beating Bournemouth’s pressing, not winning a physical battle – we needed someone who could find killer passes when under pressure.
This game have left me totally flabbergasted, It’s like every season there is this one game we just don’t want to win, like some kind of curse.
I was wondering if the Bournemouth player wasn’t half side, can anyone share some light here?
The referee seems not want to take that responsibility, else leaving it to VAR
Nope, not offside, but I thought there was a slim chance that White may have been judged to have been able to offer some cover to prevent a goal, but no chance.
Trossard played the ball, so no offside.
Came off Trossard so nope
The coach should take responsibility for Arsenal losing a game today’s match. Pathey+Rice+Merino wasn’t working without a creative spark. Obviously there was the need for a ball holder, why wait till 80th minutes to bring on Jesus and Nwaneri? This delay at times explain why PEPG is still miles ahead of many Epl coaches.
Obviously int break affected the cohesion of the players but it’s up to the gaffer to adapt an approach to not at least lose the game after Saliba red card.. He removed Sterling leaving thel team with no pace upfront and hesitated to bring on Matinelli.
I hope at the end of the season Nwaneri would not want to leave like other tarlented young players.
Luckily, there is Sharktar Ucl game on Tuesday for the boys to get back their form and be ready for Liverpool on Sunday.
So Shakhtar can’t beat us from what you’re insinuating
Today’s 11 can’t beat any average team
Midfield is creating nothing
No point-man on any wings
Havertz was the brightest spark upfront
Shakhtar will beat that 11 that started today
Jesus is an improvement to starting than Sterling atm – just cos he has chemistry with the teammates & takes-on responsibilities
@Babalola , don’t allow today’s pain of defeat cloud your analysis. ManCity didn’t win Epl last season without losing a game. What I said is “Sharktar Match is an opportunity for the Boy to build their form” it’s not just about winning but the team to recover well and play better. UCL is a different kettle of fish. We can’t give up so soon on our Boys. Till Tuesday
You’re right
They made me lose a lot of money
That’s why it hurts a lil more
But we move !
The injuries to Timber and Tomi meant that Arteta felt obliged to use Kwior as a right sided centre back when Saliba was sent off.At the time, I felt he ought to have used Rice to take over from Saliba with Partey and Merino as the midfield hub .In that way we would have retained a balanced back four .As it is Kwior, like Saliba messed up big time and the rest is history.In terms of individual performances, ironically, I thought that Partey had his best game of the season and had we kept 11 men on the park, I have no doubt we would have won.Fans have to recognise how much we miss class acts like Odegaard, Saka and Timber and recognise that we are bound to be weaker without them.On a brighter note, from his brief appearance it is patently obvious that Nwaneri is a special talent who needs to be trusted to start mstches, particularly in the absence of our highly creative Captain.
Rice at CB is not a balanced back 4
Rice started his career as a centre back and is comfortable in that position.By playing the left footed Kwior at right centre back the balance of our back four was lost .
I think he should have gone 3 at back White, Gabriel and Calaforini. Kiwior is an accident waiting to happen and it did.
White struggled big style with their winger.
Everyone is an expert when discussing an alternative universe.
Nwaneri is still very young and needs to be used appropriately. He is not yet a world beater. This is a team that has had to be reshaped due to injuries. Playing the 17 year old needs to be carefully considered not just throwing him in because he is a “special talent”.
Saliba was put in a terrible situation by Trossard which was the biggest mistake. Kiwior then threw in another ridiculous error to compound things. The back four switch was not unreasonable the game state.
Three observations:
1. The single most important player in our squad is Odegaard
2. We now have 3 players with magic dancey feet who don’t deliver enough goals
3. There’s no way that was clear and obvious mistake that justified the VAR intervention.
Guys I really think we should let byegones be byegones and focus on what next.We shouldn’t dwell more in the past,besides the season is just starting let focus on the future pls.
Again, arteta should really give ethan nwaneri a chance coz the young lad has a lot to offer to the team
Didn’t see game, but Partey, Rice Merino midfield is not going to ignite much creativity in any direction. Hopefully lessons learnt, but we have become over reliant on Odegaard and Saka and it is what it is.
That wasn’t the reason we lost. In the analysis that would be way down the list. Start with the big one, the red card and next the gifted penalty which just rubbed our noses in it, after Martinelli showed no composure to level it up, one minute before the second gift.Lets not start looking for things that are opinions and lets stick to facts. We fu££ed up. And us only.
It was Bournemouth, not a star studded, heavily expensive team. It was Bournemouth. A bang average Bournemouth with a smart manager. But Bournemouth!!!!!
So just to clarify…..now it is impossible for us to go unbeaten ?
Don’t you know tge abswer to that Dan?
As you said, Reggie somehow or other we contrived to lose to an ordinary team. But football is about control, putting pressure on the opposition and not on yourselves. Without Odegaard or a similar type of player our attacking moves will break down more frequently and lead to this type of panicking. I also agree with you that Martinelli still has a lot to prove but even the best strikers have roughly one in three succes rate. Perhaps if we were creating more we wouldn’t be lamenting the rare opportunities such as Martinelli’s miss. As you also say, I am being hypothetical.
Keeping 11 player on the field is the name of the game. The only points we have lost has been when we have reduced ourselves to 10 men.
Perhaps Arteta can employ the equivalent of Fergie’s hairdryer treatment.
I only was able to watch in dibs and drabs annoyingly but I sensed a difficult afternoon even before Saliba departed
Sue, it was 0-0 with 11 players. It wasn’t with 10. Bournemouth were not going to make it easy but that doesn’t mean, we wouldn’t have beaten them with 11 men. We still had a really strong team out, far better than Bournemouth.
True, we were poor before the sending off, but maybe if we didn’t take a safety first approach to “save the game” when we go down to ten, and then attempt to scramble a win when we’re losing. It was so predictable.
No creativity in midfield, struggled against their press and had no answer except slow and backwards passes.
Shame Nwanarei didn’t come on earlier, he has some creativity at least, something we were starving for.
I just can’t understand why the coach is not playing Nwaneri.
Merino missed the opportunity to showcase his creativity skills and they were all stuck in the midfield.
Most of the opinions are truly devoid of analysis. Let’s examine the circumstances of the game: hostile ground; one person less; soft penalty; missing key players, to wit Saka, Odegaard and Timber. Surely all these factors played a role in our defeat. It is in very rare circumstances that a ten man team wins against eleven. That one factor is what tilted the game in favour of Bournemouth. The red card incidences have become too common for Arsenal. Something has got to be done to remedy the situation. Arteta might need to institute a disciplinary tribunal to look into this because all the points we have lost this season are due to red cards. Furthermore, the coaching might have to be premised on how to avoid silly mistakes which lead to these cards.
All the other issues of creativity, missed opportunities are caused by the pressure of being a man down. I am not convinced that if we were at par in numbers we would have lost the game. I should also add that maybe some players, like Saliba, have played too many games and need a break. I am saying this because even his reviews from the international break were not so positive. Perhaps once in a while any of Jurrien Timber, Ben White or Calafiori could play centre back as Saliba gets a rest. This is is the time to examine ourselves because at the moment it is as if we are our own enemies, having too many self inflicted loss of points.
David Rusa,
Just another load of excuse making twaddle. The sooner my fellow Arsenal fans wake up to the fact that the squad just isn’t good enough the better.
Any team that banks on Jesus, Sterling, Kwior, and the like deserve all they get.
Yes a team can miss a player in a certain position, but it doesn’t say much for the team or the teams manager if you haven’t got better quality cover. And that’s down to the manager, but you loved up we love Arteta fans won’t acknowledge that will you.
We can’t have anything negative said about the great man can we.
From what you state, why didn’t Arsenal concede many goals before the red card? What you say is wide of the mark. I would have agreed with you if we had lost with equal numbers. Kiwior, whom you cited, came off the bench when we needed to tighten at the back after the sending off of Saliba. We shall not become too emotional because of a loss that has a clear explanation. There is no team that does not lose games. Losing one game does not mean losing the league or having bad players. Losing is part of the game. We should not condemn players because they have lost a game.
David Rusa,
Yes and we all saw what Kiwior did for their second goal didn’t we.
And yes I agree that we can lose a game here and there, of it happens.
But if Arsenal fans are honest with themselves, you could see this coming all season. I don’t think that Arsenal have been playing anywhere near the level’s of last season in any of the games.
And I’m sorry to say it, but this squad is not as strong and it’s also smaller than last season.
And that’s the fault of two men, Edu and Arteta. I don’t care what anyone says, this squad is nowhere near good enough to win the Premier League, and certainly not the Champions League.
Arsenal had their chance over the last two seasons. Liverpool are City’s biggest challenger’s this season not Arsenal.
So Mr. Arteta, if you’ve got any aspirations of winning silverware this season, you need to take the League and FA Cups seriously. There the only trophy’s you may have a chance in.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, any team that banks on players like Jesus, Sterling, Kiwior and the like deserve all they get, which will be nothing.
Well, if we’re that bad Derek, I suppose I’d better not watch any more league games this season and take up Nordic walking.
I think we were defending from the onset. Sterling was totally lost. The idea of three midfielders was always going to create problems. Only two regular players were out but it was as if we replaced the whole team. Arteta oa re bolaya
What happened was a case of the team losing a player through suspension which had an effect on the overall performance of the team. Any team can lose a game on any day. However, loss of a game does not mean we should denigrate our players or speak disparagingly about the coach. So far the season has not even gone quarter way. There are still twists and turns ahead. If we express negative feelings every time the team loses, where shall we end?