It was one of those tricky early starts. The Emirates looked bright and resplendent in the sparkling sunlight.
As the players trooped out, a lot of colour got added. Arsenal in their usual red and white and Bournemouth in an eye pleasing mix of black and yellow.
Arsenal chasing Manchester City in the title race needed to be equally sparkling and shining.
Bournemouth, much improved under Andoni Iraola, had to be solid to keep the Gunners at bay. The last time around they were thrashed by four at home.
Arsenal push as Bournemouth look passive
Arsenal kept pressing through the flanks and getting behind the lines. The visitors were strangely passive as the likes of Saka , White and Partey kept the right flank active. Even William Saliba , always the to stay back manning the defence got behind the Bournemouth defence and had a shot at goal, only to be denied by the goalkeeper Mark Travers.
Arsenal, all through the first half looked like the team that would score first, and they did. There were almost a dozen shots at the goal before the first goal came. Kai Havertz having slipped past the defence was tripped by an ever so slight touch from Travers and Saka coolly converted the penalty.
A Declan Rice show, millions spent well.
The second half was a Declan Rice show all the way. From strolling in his usual midfield patch, he burst into runs catching the Bournemouth defence by surprise. Shortly after the hour, he arrived in the box in a flash and with his back to the goal laid off a cute pass to an unmarked Leandro Trossard to slot home.
In added time Rice made up for having missed a chance in the first half . One moment he was strolling near the half line , as Jesus held the ball in the right wing, the next, he had whizzed into some space between two players. He collected a Jesus pass, took the ball further away and pinged it across Travers. It was one of his best performances in Arsenal colours and it rightly got him the man of the match award.
Bournemouth were passive most of the game and just the once they bulged the net, it was disallowed by VAR. Dominic Solanki was judged to have impeded David Raya in the goal The usually busy Cherries, never troubled the Gunners much today. Iraola has a lot to do to get this bunch into a force, which he might hopefully achieve in the seasons to come.
Premier League and crossed fingers.
Arsenal had a routine day in the office. With two to go they are four points ahead of City, who have four games in hand. With Liverpool losing its way, this might be a two horse race now.
What a season this is turning out to be. The young Gunners have stuck to their task and a slight slip from the Manchester Blues is the only thing that they need.
Every Manchester City match will be watched by the Arsenal fans with crossed fingers.
There would be a lot of mangled fingers for sure by the time the season runs out.
