London,
Saturday, 4 May, 2024
Arsenal won their 14th Premier League game in 16 as they beat Bournemouth 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium to go four points clear at the top of the table, and put the pressure back on chasers Manchester City.
The Gunners were completely dominant in the first half, recording 16 shots to Bournemouth’s one. The Cherries put in some magnificent blocks to deny the hosts early on, before Kai Havertz forced Mark Travers to palm his powerful effort away.
William Saliba then found himself in an unnatural position inside the penalty box, as he cut inside and unleashed a shot towards goal with his weaker foot, but Travers saved again.
Bukayo Saka was then denied by the goalkeeper, before Takehiro Tomiyasu’s header was brilliantly cleared off the line. Arsenal were getting closer to the breakthrough, and after Thomas Partey and Declan Rice were woefully off target from promising positions, eventually they took the lead just before HT.
Travers caught Havertz’s trailing leg, resulting in a penalty for the Gunners, as Saka wrongfooted the goalkeeper to score his 16th league goal this season.
Mikel Arteta’s side should have doubled their lead four minutes into the second half when Saka found himself in acres of space from Havertz’s lay-off, but shot straight at Travers, before Havertz himself was denied by the Englishman.
Dominic Solanke then recorded Bournemouth’s first shot on target in a rare attack, before Justin Kluivert fired just wide with the visitors’ confidence increasing.
However, Arsenal managed to double their advantage against the run of play, as Rice nonchalantly flicked towards Leandro Trossard, who fired first-time into the bottom corner.
The Cherries would have felt hard done by, especially after they had the ball in the net moments later through Antoine Semenyo, but it was disallowed for a foul on David Raya in the build-up, shortly after Ryan Christie hit the crossbar from his punch-out.
Gabriel scored the goal of his life with a half-volley into the top corner late on, but the centre-back was unfortunately denied by the offside flag, as Rice sealed it in injury time with a precision strike.
Arsenal recorded four successive head-to-head wins against Bournemouth in the process, while Andoni Iraola’s team stay in 10th.
