A professional performance from Arsenal has seen them clinch a 2-0 victory over AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium. A few brief moments of excellence was all Arsene Wenger’s side need to take the three points away.
Two goals in a period of about 90 seconds was enough to decide the match between title-chasers Arsenal and a Bournemouth side that has been known for pulling out an underdog win on occasion.
The first goal came after Olivier Giroud chased a lofted ball to the byline and headed it back into the path of an oncoming and in-form Mesut Ozil, who volleyed the ball home from close range.
In the very next phase of play, some excellent interchangeable passing in the middle of the park from Arsenal was enough to drag the Bournemouth defence in, before unleashing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain down the right side, who finished firmly into the bottom left of Artur Boruc’s goal.
Despite a lacklustre 90 seconds from the Bournemouth defence, Wenger maintains that it was a win that his side had to work for. The Arsenal boss claiming: “We won against a good side, who gives a game to everybody. I think at the end of the day it was three difficult-to-earn points, but three very important ones for us”.
The result means that Arsenal maintain their chase of Premier League front-runners Leicester City, moving to within five points of the Foxes. As for Bournemouth they fail to pick up any points in a weekend that saw each team under them in the Premier League standings come away with at least a draw. As it stands, they are five points off the relegation zone.
Formations
At the start of the season Howe struggled to hone in on a preferred lineup, now in the 25th round of the Premier League he seems to have establish a regular crop of first teamers. Pugh and Ritchie keep Stanislas on the bench while Afobe continues to champion the No. 9 role.
Howe continues with what has long been his preferred back-four of Adam Smith, Simon Francis, Steve Cook and Charlie Daniels. Building on the Howe consistency at the back is the midfield machine of Andrew Surman, Harry Arter and Dan Gosling.
Bournemouth XI (4-1-4-1): Boruc; Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels; Surman; Ritchie, Gosling, Arter, Pugh; Afobe.
In the Gunners’ camp, Gabriel’s performances have managed to keep German international, Per Mertesacker, out of the starting eleven. Francis Coquelin remains on the bench in favor of Mathieu Flamini.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain takes to the field on the right wing, with Joel Campbell and Theo Walcott being withheld. When quizzed about his selection of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsene Wenger replied: “In every game I have a selection problem, because I have many good players- especially in the wide positions. But it’s down to performances and down to my selection.”
Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscienly, Monreal; Flamini, Ramsey; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud.
Ozil and Ramsey- License to roam
At the helm of a lot of Arsenal’s play against Bournemouth was Ozil and Ramsey. The pair were started in attacking and defensive roles respectfully, but as the game wore on it became more and more apparent that the pair had been given permission to chase the play all over the pitch.
Because of this, Flamini was forced to stay in a restricted holding midfield role- though it is his natural position. The result was that Arsenal were granted more freedom in the middle of the park and thus given more opportunities to breakdown the Bournemouth defence.
Speaking on Arsenal’s prowess with the ball Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said: “We were slow out of the blocks today, which is unlike us and we gave them too much time on the ball… When you give players of their quality too much time on the ball they will punish you- and that’s what they did”.
Bournemouth ineffective from outside the box
It’s no secret that Bournemouth play a very counter attacking style of football, often bursting into the final third rather than the slow build-up approach. But against Arsenal, Bournemouth had very few chances to threaten.
This somewhat shifted their ambitions, leading to a flurry of attempts from outside the box. The problem was they they were having very little success with their shooting- only forcing a save from Cech with 4 of their 17 attempts on goal.
A bad day in the crossing department for both sides
Both Arsenal and Bournemouth are notorious for moving the ball wide and making trouble for opposition defenses. But against eachother they each seemed to struggled to calibrate their sights when it came to crossing.
Arsenal had success with one of their 10 attempted crosses throughout the game, even then it was through a corner taken by Mesut Ozil in the 55th minute of play. A fact that would have left the aerially-dominant Olivier Giroud frustrated.
Bournemouth managed to find their man on 3 occasions- two more times than Arsenal. But, attempted an astonishing 27 crosses over the course of the 90 minutes. Making for a very lame conversion rate in terms of crossing. Though when you do the math, Bournemouth beat Arsenal in crossing, converting a bit over 11% to Arsenal’s 10%.
Conclusion
Both sides came into the game with the potential to seriously improve their standing in the league table. Though at the end of the day it was Arsenal that managed to rally their quality (albeit for about 90 seconds) and take out the win.
After the match both managers seemed eager to immediately turn their attentions from the immediate-past and look towards upcoming fixtures.
Wenger has his eyes on a top of the table clash with Leicester City. A game that in footballing lingo is consider a ‘six-point-game’, because of the fact that whomever wins, earns a vital three points, while simultaneously taking a crucial three points away from their direct competitors.
“It’s a big game for us at home and we want to stay in the race- and of course we want to beat them.”
For Eddie Howe and his men, they’re focused on taking the necessary point away from their remaining fixtures. When jeered about the progress sides under Bournemouth had made on the weekend, a stone-face Howe replied: “From our perspective as long as we are doing our bit it doesn’t really matter what they do, but it’s a disappointing weekend because we’ve lost”.
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