Pandemonium at the Emirates as an unlikely hero saves the day

 

 

Arsenal 3 Bournemouth 2   
Premier League   
Saturday 4th March 2023 3pm   

But for small margins, Arsenal would have a one point lead over Manchester City after 26 matches. As it is, injury time winners at Villa and yesterday mean that they have secured maximum points from the three matches after their early February lull, but let’s face it, for late drama, the win over Bournemouth yesterday put even the victory at Villa into the shade.

 

It was a surreal afternoon. Bournemouth, in theory cannon fodder, a team that struggles to score goals somehow engineered two. From the luxury of the eventual win, the goals conceded can be analysed with less pain, and both were avoidable. The first, within the opening 10 seconds was a matter of Gabriel failing to deal with a simple ball allowing Billing to score. Human error, but nonetheless such mistakes need to be minimized. The only saving grace was that Mikel Arteta’s team had almost an entire match to put things right. 

 

You did feel the sheer amount of possession and territory the home side enjoyed would have to tell. The stats in that respect were ridiculous, even if they only resulted in three attempts on target before the interval. Arteta’s team were unlucky not to equalise soon after Bournemouth’s goal when efforts from Odegaard and Saka were kept out, but on a rare break, the visitors forced a phenomenal one handed save from Ramsdale. For the most part, there was no out ball, so encamped were the Cherries in preventing an equaliser. Possession in the opening half was 85% to 15% in Arsenal’s favour.

 

You really did feel it was simply a matter of time before parity was established, and Arteta shook things up at the interval by replacing Tomiyasu with Ben White. The Japanese defender had been one of three changes from the Everton game three days before, alongside Partey for Jorginho, and Vieira coming in for Xhaka, the latter producing that stat about an Arsenal team without a player who made an appearance under Wenger not starting for the first time in 37 years. Another change happened halfway through the opening half when an injured Trossard had to be taken off with Smith Rowe replacing him. 

 

Things got worse before they got better shortly before the hour. Corners can be a tale of individual duels, such as the one lost by Odegaard against Tarkowsky at Everton (albeit aided by Saliba being impeded on the cross from the corner kick). You’d expect Thomas Partey to be strong enough to contain his direct opponent at a set piece, but he was beaten all ends up by Senesi’s movement, with the resulting free header beating Ramsdale. 

 

Manchester City had beaten Newcastle in the early kick off, so things were looking very ominous at this point. 33 minutes plus injury time to play against a defence that had held out up until this point. At least there was only a five minute wait before Partey compensated for his part in the second Bournemouth goal by lashing the ball in after connecting with a Smith Rowe header. The latter only lasted another seven minutes before a significant switch was made, as he was withdrawn in spite of entering himself from the bench – presumably due to lack of match fitness – for Reiss Nelson.

 

It was a case of cometh the man, cometh the moment. Nelson’s impact was immediate – a cross for Ben White to finish with goal-line technology beyond the subjective aspect of VAR and AI confirming the ball was over the line. 2-2 with 20 minutes plus to find a winner. The final switch saw Xkaka come on for Vieira – who had failed to make a strong case for regular inclusion – in the 85th minute. There was a healthy six minutes of injury time awarded and the Gunners needed every second of it. 

 

They kept knocking on the door and as it looked like the referee was preparing to blow for full-time after a corner was cleared, the ball fell to Reiss Nelson on the edge of the box and he hit a firm and true strike through the defence past the Cherries’ keeper. No VAR required to destroy the moment and Arsenal had secured three points. How precious the extra two prove we’ll know in three months’ time, but they felt massive. 

 

I wrote after the Villa win that the manner of victory might be as key to the remainder of the campaign as the points, and the ‘never give up’ attitude that we have seen in that, and yesterday’s game have been decisive. Nelson’s winner put me in mind of Steve Bruce’s winner in the 1992-93 title run-in at home to Sheffield Wednesday, the game that saw the phrase ‘Fergie Time’ invented. It had that feeling about it in terms of importance. Of course, Arsenal have yet to visit Manchester City and (let’s look at it as if we were neutral bookmakers) an expected defeat there would narrow the gap to two points. 

 

But the truth is that both Arsenal and Manchester City are likely to drop points elsewhere, and yesterday was a reminder that no game is predictable. Newcastle could have got a draw at the Etihad with their chances on another day. The Gunners must continue to focus on what they can control, and the last eight days have seen three wins in a row, and you could have forgiven them if they had felt a little jaded at times against Bournemouth, although Arteta did shake things up a little to counter this. As it was, it wasn’t really a high tempo match for the simple reason that one side were content to remain in their own third for the vast majority of it. 

 

The significance of the contribution to the three goals by players that started the game on the bench (Smith Rowe, White, Nelson) is noteworthy, because this was a win for a squad as much as a team, with two of those mentioned having missed long spells of the season on the treatment table. No doubt more of the backup options will get some gametime soon enough as Europa League distraction returns in the next two midweeks to add to the cocktail of fixtures the club has to negotiate. A run all the way to the final in Budapest would mean an additional seven matches on top of the 12 in the league. Given that Champions League football is pretty much guaranteed now, the only pressure to continue in Europe is the 29 year gap since the club’s last continental silverware. 

 

Frankly, another domestic title is more of a priority for this writer. 19 years is long enough. The opportunity is there, let’s hope the players continue to hold their nerve, stop conceding avoidable goals and continue racking up the points. Manchester City can score a maximum of 94, and they have gone on winning runs to secure titles more than once in the past. If Arsenal can simply keep winning themselves, that won’t matter. Having said that, I think there are only a certain number of games like those against Villa and Bournemouth that the heart can take, so a few routine wins certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

 

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