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Match Report: Arsenal 5 – 1 Bournemouth

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Arsenal (2) 5 AFC Bournemouth (1) 1
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 27th January 2019. Kick-off time: 7.45pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal, Jenkinson; Guendouzi, Torreira; Kolašinac, Mkhitaryan, Özil; Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Čech, Elneny, Ramsey, Lacazette, Iwobi, Mustafi, Suárez.
Scorers: Özil, Mkhitaryan, Koscielny, Aubameyang, Lacazette
Yellow Card: Sokratis, Torreira
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Attendance: 59,618

At the end of the day, it was purely down to five goals from five different goalscorers, and a performance that truly showed Arsenal’s class at last in the Premiership. Despite the last few matches in which we looked anything but top four contenders at times, tonight’s performance was absolutely sublime; and this was down to the enigmatic and controversial figure of Mesut Özil.

Okay, it would be easy for the nay-sayers to state that “it was only Bournemouth” and “what else do you expect?” but the bottom line of it all was that Arsenal found their inner beast here at The Emirates tonight, and for once they were single-minded in their approach and ruthless in the delivery of their victory. Right from the fourth minute, when Mesut Özil scored, it looked the match that it really became, where there was only one team on the pitch tonight.

Mesut Özil’s silky skills shone through silver and gold throughout the proceedings, and the second goal, which came after 27 minutes showed his dominance and influence on the pitch. Henrikh Mkhitaryan passed the ball to Mesut Özil who quickly slotted it back to him and of course our Armenian striker wasted no time in scoring Arsenal’s second of the night. Three minutes later, Arsenal hearts were a-flutter in the stadium when the visitors got a goal back through Lys Mousset who scored with a simple tap-in, but really there was no need for panic to set in. For the rest of the half, Arsenal were solid, yet still created chances to score, and despite one or two scares, we went into the break on the ascendancy.

A couple of minutes into the new half, Arsenal were three goals to the good when Laurent Koscielny scored off a post, and although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang drove the ball home to make sure, the tech results proved beyond doubt that it was the captain’s goal all the way. And still Bournemouth had their chances with a Dan Gosling shot striking the crossbar, and Bernd Leno making an athletic save, but all in all our luck held and our night was not to be ruined. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang showed supreme confidence when he run onto a Henrikh Mkhitaryan pass and simply went past the Cherries’ goalkeeper and placed the ball into the net for the fourth goal, and twelve minutes from time, the substitute striker Alexandre Lacazette was the fifth and final Arsenal player to get onto the score-sheet tonight with the winning goal from a firmly-taken free-kick. Arsenal 5, AFC Bournemouth 1. A scoreline that brings back confidence to a sometimes lacklustre team and a warning shot across Tottenham Hotspur’s bows for the North London derby at Wembley Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.

Mr. Emery’s tactics tonight were absolutely spot-on; he saw the challenge of Bournemouth, rose to it, met it and summarily destroyed it. Arsenal are now fourth in the Premiership and at this stage in the season, it is vitally important for us to retain the momentum and keep going and maintain the boiling pot at all costs. Whether this team will be same one that starts on Saturday is open to conjecture, but with three important matches coming up in the next eleven days against Tottenham Hotspur, Rennes (in the Europa Cup) and Manchester United, the pressure is truly on. Keep going lads, you’re looking good; don’t let it slip.  Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Rodgers to Leicester opens door for Tierney or Chilwell to Arsenal

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Today Arsenal face Bournemouth looking to make it 3 wins in the last 3 games.

No game in the Premier League is easy, but anything less than 3 points will be a blow for the top 4 hopes.

It is a close fight for 4th place, with 3 points separating Arsenal in 4th and Chelsea in 6th. The key tonight is that Tottenham are at Chelsea.

If Spurs lose (and Arsenal win) Tottenham are dragged back towards the chasing pack – there could be just 5 points separating 3rd and 5th. If they win, it would could take Arsenal and Manchester United away from Chelsea and turn it into a two-horse race.

With Arsenal set to face Tottenham (away) and Manchester United (home) in the next two weeks, 3 points tonight as key – as you would be very surprised if we got 6 points from the next 2.

After Manchester United in a weeks time, there are 8 games to go, and Arsenal have a relatively comfortable run in – with Everton and Leicester away being our only tricky fixtures.

Victory tonight puts us on the tail of Tottenham and could result in us finishing ahead of them in 3rd place.

Moving on, Brendan Rodgers has joined Leicester City, and this could play out well for Arsenal’s chase for a new left back.

With Nacho Monreal coming to the end of his contract – and the rumours of him getting a 1-year extension dying down – Arsenal will certainly move in the summer for competition for Saed Kolasinac.

Kieran Tierney has been a long term target for some time.

Just 21-years-old, the Scottish youngster has remained loyal to Celtic in recent years, but Rodgers leaving could open the flood gates for those players who were loyal to the manager. Tierney will be one of those expected to leave in the summer.

Arsenal should be in for him.

One stumbling block could be that Rodgers wants to take him to Leicester City; but this could open another door.

If Tierney joins Leicester, they might cash in on Ben Chilwell to finance the transfer.

If either Chilwell or Tierney are available this summer, Arsenal need to move for one of them. It will be the left hand side of the defence sorted for a decade.

Enjoy the game tonight. Back the team.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Southampton

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Arsenal (2) 2 Southampton (0) 0

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 24th February 2019. Kick-off time: 2.05pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolašinac; Torreira, Xhaka; Mkhitaryan, Ramsey, Iwobi; Lacazette.

Substitutes: Čech, Koscielny, Özil, Aubameyang, Monreal, Suárez, Guendouzi.

Scorers: Lacazette, Mkhitaryan

Referee: Graham Scott

Attendance: 59,877

Truthfully, after just seventeen minutes, this routine Sunday afternoon match against struggling Southampton was all but over, courtesy of two well-taken goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan; but in essence, this victory probably told us more about Arsenal and their self-imposed limitations more than we thought possible at this stage of the season.

Both goals came from some truly lackadaisical play from the visitors. The first goal was made possible after a sloppy effort by Nathan Redmond that saw us do what we know we can do best, which is smash-and-grab football of course. Almost immediately we broke out, and although it looked as if we were going to get a penalty awarded to us after Lucas Torreira was ham-fistedly tackled in the penalty area whilst attempting to meet an Alex Iwobi cross, Henrikh Mkhitaryan fluffed his shot, but thankfully Alexandre Lacazette was on hand to make no mistake in scoring his thirteenth goal of the season. Eleven minutes later, another Southampton error led to our final goal of the day. Some kind of schoolboy football that involved the Saints’ goalkeeper and a defender saw the ball land at the feet of young Alex Iwobi who wasted no time in getting a low cross over to Henrikh Mkhitaryan who drilled it into the back of the net.

Pressure, boys, pressure. This was now the measure of Arsenal for the rest of the half. How on earth we didn’t score any more goals after that degree of domination was nothing short of incredible. Alexandre Lacazette by rights, should have added another three goals to his tally at least, whilst Granit Xhaka somehow failed to hit the target with a superb effort just before half-time. Arsenal had eleven shots on the Southampton goal, two of which found the target; of the others, it would not have been unkind to the men from the south coast to say that by the time Graham Scott blew his whistle bringing proceedings to a halt, we should have been at least 4-0 ahead at the break.

After the natural hiatus, the visitors did change formation and it did look like they were going to get something out of thus match at various points in the second half, but thanks to a winning combination of great marking from the defence and a superb performance by Bernd Leno, we deservedly kept a clean sheet here at The Emirates today. As usual, Mr. Emery utilised all three substitutes in the second half; Laurent Koscielny for Stephan Lichtesteiner after 56 minutes, Mesut Özil in place of Aaron Ramsey on 63 minutes and with a quarter an hour remaining on the clock, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang replaced Alex Iwobi up front. And still, we could have scored. Mesut Özil saw an opportunity for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to add his name to the score sheet, but unfortunately his effort was very nearly turned into the net by a Southampton defender. However, we won, kept a clean sheet, put three points on the board, and even better that all that, we are in fourth place in the Premiership table tonight.

Although there was no doubt as to who the dominant side on the day was here at The Emirates, our problem still remains that when Arsenal are leading in matches, we are just not ruthless enough. We need to be able to demolish, not just beat the opposition, and not allow them back into the game at any time during the proceedings. Every man today played their part in the win, and they all played well; it was good to see Mesut Özil in particular back and in form, with some of his passing being truly amazing. Our next opponents here are Bournemouth AFC on Wednesday evening; let’s hope that we find consistency in our play and continue this winning feeling. A top four finish is here in our hands, now. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.