Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth: Quite comfortable, a little contentious

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One more down, two to go. Yesterday’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth was one of those games that could have been won far more comfortably, but also one that could have been far more uncomfortable.

Mikel Arteta named an unchanged side, and from the off they tore into the visitors. How we didn’t score in the first half is a bit nuts really. 16 shots, 1.97xG racked up, chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity and we didn’t take them. I think some credit has to go to how resolutely Bournemouth defended in their own box, to get bodies in the way and block shots, while Mark Travers made a couple of good saves/interventions to prevent the ball hitting the back of the net.

Other times we were wasteful. Both Thomas Partey and Declan Rice had very good chances which they didn’t make the most of, and it was hard to escape the feeling it might be one of those days. My mind went back to that game against Fulham years ago when Edwin van der Sar made about 200 saves in a 0-0 draw.

Then, just before the break, a brilliant Martin Odegaard pass found Kai Havertz, the keeper came, the Arsenal forward left a leg out and went down. The ref pointed to the spot, VAR checked, and it was one of those where I don’t think they could reasonably overturn the on-field decision.

I have to be honest, and say I hate when these are given as penalties. Yes, the keeper gets in the way a bit, and the forward is impeded so makes sure there’s contact, but they’ve always frustrated me because we used to get them given against us all the time. So I can understand Andoni Iraolo being frustrated by it, but while the two things aren’t connected, I think we can also be frustrated that Ryan Christie wasn’t sent off in the 11th minute for a nasty challenge on Bukayo Saka. I know that’s not how it works, but still.

3 of our last 4 games, 3 red card challenges have resulted in 1 yellow card

— arseblog (@arseblog) May 4, 2024

I had no issue with Fabio Vieira’s red card against Burnley earlier this season, and I don’t see this as any different. It was high, over the ball, dangerous, and clearly caused some real damage to Saka. So, if our penalty was a touch generous, so too was the fact that challenge didn’t even result in a yellow card for the Bournemouth man (another absurdity of VAR is that it has no power to tell the ref ‘That’s a booking, at the very least’).

Saka stepped up. Saka scored like he had ice running through his veins. That was a pressure moment, just before half-time, and had he missed the ‘One-of-those-days-ometer’ would have hit MAX. I think he should have doubled the lead early in the second half, when really good play from the impressive-again Havertz gave him a sight of goal with just the keeper to beat, but his finish was rushed and lacked the kind of precision needed.

Bournemouth were far better in the second half, playing higher up the pitch, and David Raya had to make a good save from Dominic Solanke at his near post. It looked like there had been a foul on Odegaard in the build-up, but the ref played on. We couldn’t find the second, Rice rampaged forward to drill the ball across the face of goal but nobody was there to tap it home.

But he made the difference in the 70th minute, starting a run from the edge of his own box to get the ball on the edge of theirs. His touch wasn’t perfect, but the way he improvised to play the ball with the outside of his foot for Leandro Trossard to tuck it home for 2-0 was superb. A great assist, another big goal from the Belgian, and that eased some of the nerves.

Then the moment which could have made the final stages more uncomfortable. A Bournemouth cross came into the box, Tomiyasu got there first and booted it to the moon, Raya decided to take charge and came out to punch it. I think there’s enough of deliberate foul on him from Solanke to put him off – he isn’t going for the ball, which I do think is an important consideration. If he was just jumping, challenging, fine, but you can see him look straight at Raya, and I suspect that’s why the decision went our way.

The Arsenal keeper didn’t get great contact on it, the ball was fired back in off the bar and then into the back of the net. At that point, the ref blew the whistle to disallow it. There’s also the issue of William Saliba and Philip Billing, and the Arsenal defender does have hold of his arm, and you could easily argue that’s a foul. I don’t really understand the process well enough to know if their mindset is that if Solanke hadn’t nudged Raya, the keeper would have got there before Billing. Or if it’s just a regular tussle in the box without crossing the threshold for a penalty.

If I applied my penalty decision making process to this, how would I feel if an Arsenal goal was disallowed in this context? Probably a little frustrated, but if the main and first action in the chaos was a slight, but very deliberate foul by an Arsenal player, I could probably understand it. Ultimately though, I don’t think it’s a massive injustice, just a fairly borderline decision that went our way. Considering how many we’ve been on the other end of this season, maybe it is a case these things even themselves out (they don’t, but you know what I mean).

Gabriel Martinelli came on and immediately had a chance to make an impact, but if anything encapsulates his recent form, it’s the fact he took it on, drove into the box, fell over, and nothing happened. Last season’s Martinelli scores that, or provides an assist. I don’t think it’s anything to write long think-pieces about, he’s just out of form and low on confidence. It’ll come back.

The third goal came right at the death, and again it showed what Rice brings to this team. The desire to get forward and to run 50 or 60 yards at that point is outstanding. The ball hit the net at 96’21 – there were 8 minutes of added time. The game was won. Over. Finito. Even if we were denied a brilliant Gabriel strike from a marginal offside.

But still fuming from his first half miss, Rice charged through midfield, found a gap, Jesus gave him the ball and he finished with power and accuracy. Every goal matters, and that just summed up his character. You rest when the game is over, when the final whistle is blown, not before – regardless of the scoreline. He’s not alone in that attitude by the way, but this was a great example of how it can manifest itself during a game.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

We started the game with probably the best first half we’ve played all season. I think we were unbelievable, we were super composed on the ball, really aggressive without the ball, we generated so many chances, we could have scored three, four or five easily. But we didn’t, we scored one and then credit to Bournemouth as well, they changed a few things, they created some issues for us and the game became a little bit more open. That was something we wanted to avoid, but within that game as well we resolved certain situations in the right way and we were very efficient in front of goal to score the goals, and maintain another clean sheet.

The clean sheet means David Raya wins this season’s Golden Glove. Good for him, but he should give a finger to each of the defenders in front of him too, because they have been a big part of that. The three points put us four clear of City until they hammered Wolves, it’s now one point, but the title push continues.

The collective performance in the first half was excellent, everything but the goals [insert your own pun here about ‘And I missed you’ when referring to all those chances], and there were some outstanding individuals too. Rice, I’ve mentioned. Odegaard pulled the strings so well. Havertz put in the kind of performance that if we’d signed him as an £80m striker in January and he did that people would be screaming ‘BARGAIN’. And I think Saka deserves a mention too – there’s a high-volume relentlessness about the way he plays that is directly connected to his end-product. It’s 20 goals in all competitions this season, with 14 assists too. What a man.

Now, we head to the penultimate weekend of the season still in a title race. It’s out of our hands, but football is full of surprises. All we can do is keep the pressure on and see what happens. We’re going to talk a lot about all of it in the week ahead and the one after that, and as much as it might be joyous, it might get painful too.

So, let me just use this moment to say that however it ends up, I really love this team, what they do, and how they do it. In those fallow years, I said many times that I’m not so entitled that I demand trophies or else. All I wanted to see was an Arsenal team that was genuinely competitive, and that played in a way I could connect with. One whose performances and attitude showed they really cared, in the way we care as fans. We’ve got that. We’ve got a team that plays for the badge, not the paycheck and the comfortable lifestyle, and whatever happens in the next two weeks, I appreciate that so much.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there. Join us tomorrow for an Arsecast Extra, and for now, have a great Sunday folks.

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