Report: Bournemouth 2-0 Arsenal (inc. goals)

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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 four changes to the team that beat Southampton before the international break, with Ben White, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling 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 did have two more chances before half time, with Semenyo stinging Raya’s gloves after skinning Sterling with some nice body 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 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 penalty, 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 another game with ten men will be of huge frustration.

With fixtures coming thick and fast, they need to bounce back ahead of another busy week; both domestically and in Europe.

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