Was defeat against Bournemouth a one off, or will we become accustomed to these humiliations from Arsenal this season?
On Saturday night Arsenal were overthrown by AFC Bournemouth in the Premiership devastatingly. The Cherries picked The Gunners to pieces 2-0 in the latter stages of the game.
After 70 minutes Justin Kluivert handed Andoni Iraola’s side the lead, sliding in a low corner into the top right hand side of goal.
Within ten minutes Ryan Christie topped off The Cherries second ever win in history against Arsenal with his indomitable penalty, which by that stage the damage had been completed.
We can’t afford to lose these type of games if we are to be considered genuine Premier League title contenders this season.
The Dorset side were sat ten positions below us in the bottom section of the league in 13th before kickoff, and almost ten points off of where we still currently sit third in the table by a whisker.
If Manchester City win against Wolves, which they’ll probably do considering they are currently sat in the relegation zone without victory, and Liverpool defeat Chelsea then we’ll be three points off of City in second and four points behind The Reds top.
The Gunners can’t accept this point deficit this early on considering we lost the Premier League last season to Manchester City who sealed the title, by only two points on the final day of the campaign.
Mikel Arteta’s North London boys also lost control of the title after losing games we should’ve won against lesser opponents like Bournemouth yesterday. For example losing 2-0 to West Ham and 2-1 to Fulham despite leading.
In the past two years overall, we’ve ensured that we’ve won the vast majority of our matches in the Premier League and also against teams below us, apart from the following occasions above and a few more. We didn’t even lose last season to any of the top teams in the Premiership, a statement to say the least.
However the days of when we struggled to beat mid-table sides such as during the early 2020s when we finished 8th one season started to show yesterday, we’ve come so far in such a short period of time that we must capitalise on our recent form and momentum in the league, and finally pip Manchester City to the title.
We mustn’t regress to those former painful years of unpredictability against lesser sides in the Premier League.
I know it’s early on in the season however if Arsenal don’t catch themselves quickly they’re only going to fall harder, with greater disappointment and anguish from the fans come the end of the campaign!
Let’s hope last night was just a one off and no more!
Liam Harding
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I think you have the goal scorers around the wrong way Liam.
The answer is simple, you need more creative players with a bag of tricks, to create chaos in the box or final third.
It is for that reason we should allow the kid to dip his bread.
Cutting in from the left, running at defenders some times cause panic, just ask the legendary Frenchman.
It used to be the other way around, certainly in Wenger’s final years. I recall Arsenal went many games without a win against any of other the so-called “big 6”, often humiliated in several of those games as well. It is still very early days so I don’t think we can really identify any particular pattern.
However, I hope that the defeat against Bournemouth is a wake-up call not only to Arsenal but to some fans who, judging by posts prior to the defeat seemed to think that Arsenal only needs turn up at the end of May to collect the title trophy.
We’ve had a plethora of articles and/or posts about our brilliant defence, the (real) prospect of an “Invincibles MkII”, how many trophies Arsenal might win etc. Nothing wrong with any of that, of course, but saying it isn’t doing it, and the practicalities seemed to be overlooked sometimes.
It’s going to be a long, tough, season over the remaining EPL 30 games, never mind the CL and domestic cup games. Arsenal may well be successful in the end but it’s going to have to be earned the hard way.
Cheer up Bertie , this lost could very well be just a blip
Hopefully, but I’ve a feeling it won’t be unless on-pitch discipline improves.
I’m personally not more or less cheerful than I was before the defeat because I didn’t buy into “Invincibles Mk II” or any of the other stuff. As I’ve said in other posts, things happen in football – unexpected things – all the time and the best intentions and expectations often go out the window pretty quickly when they do.
Personally I feel Arteta got the selections wrong, and a lot stemmed from that.
Havertz and Trossard in midfield have played well together; Trossard offers creativity and Merino offered none.
If Martinelli was not fit enough to start then he should have went with Jesus on LW. He could offer pace on the wing, something Trossard does not.
Lastly he waited too long to make changes. Nwanarei and Jesus should have entered earlier, and a back 3 of White, Gabriel, and Calafiori could have done the job, especially with Rice in front of them.
Bad selections, sloppy play and no creativity really made it tough for us.
Despite the unfair criticism aimed at Merino who is a box to box midfielder and not a creative AM, basically we lost to Bournemouth because we could not keep eleven men on the pitch.The absence of key players such as Odegaard, Saka and Timber was a blow but against a fit, well organised side like Bournemouth on their compact pitch, which is in itself a leveller,it was always going to be a difficult game .Had Saliba not been sent off I am confident we would have been able to grind out a win without being entirely convincing.