Bournemouth starting XI: Arrizabalaga ( GK); Araujo, Sensei, Zabarnyi, Kerkez; Cook, Scott; Semenyo, Ouattara, Tavernier; Evanilson.

Arsenal starting XI: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Rice, Partey, Merino; Sterling, Trossard, Havertz.

Match Officials:

Referee: Rob Jones.

Assistants: Neil Davies, Simon Long.

Fourth official: Tim Robinson.

VAR: Jarred Gillett.

Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard.

Premier League

Vitality Stadium

19th October 2024

KO: 17:30 (UK)

We return from another long, pointless international break which again has injured another one of our players, as this evening, we look to face Bournemouth.

With both Odegaard and Saka out for today's fixture Arteta will have to mix up the side playing Sterling instead of Saka aswell as bringing in Merino as Havertz will have to go up top with Trossard on the left as a result of Martinelli picking up a small injury leaving him on the bench.

Bournemouth, despite being relatively midtable, have put in some good performances this season under boss Iraola, with their most recent result being a 3-1 win against Southampton. It will be a tough test for us with our injuries however, hopefully the boys can do a job.

As we kicked off at the Vitality, with 1,000 Arsenal fans packed into the away end, we maintained the ball for the first few minutes. However, Bournemouth matched our possession with a high press keeping us at bay for the majority of the first 10 minutes.

Bournemouth made the game very scrappy for us as Saliba played another long ball. The Cherries were forcing us to kick it up long to Havertz who made no real threat. The first half-chance fell to Bournemouth through a big error from Raya as his ball for Moreno was intercepted by Scott on the edge of the box.

He played over to Semenyo who fired his effort over. We had our first surge towards goal as Sterlings cross was blocked as Semenyo beat Sterling to bring it clear and relieve the pressure to move them up the pitch into our half. Rice then won a free kick which was played to Gabriel who swung in a cross which was partially cleared out to Sterling whose cross sailed over.

The first major moment then came as a very sloppy pass back from Trossard towards our centre backs went through our half as Evanlison looked to chase, but he was brought down by Saliba. With the Bournemouth players rushing over appealing, the referee tissues Saliba a yellow card. However, a VAR check was ongoing as they deemed Saliba to have denied a goal scoring opportunity.

The referee went to the monitor and then changed his decision to a red card. For me yes it is a harsh red card considering how unpredictable it could've been if Saliba had beaten Evanilson to the on running ball, but I am not going to be against the VAR decision. I think that there needs to be a lot more consistency between all the referees for these kind of incidents as some referees may stick with their initial decisions and some may just see it as a foul.

Anyway, with Saliba off Gabriel was able to clear the free kick. Moments later a ball in from Sensei found Semenyo whose effort was blocked brilliantly by Gabriel.

Our best chance came a minute later as Trossard bring the ball forward and found Sterling, who went on the outside before finding across. The cross was headed away but only to Merino just inside the box. He got a shot away but dragged it wide of the near post. Semenyo then went on the outside before shooting with his left foot. His shot was straight at Raya who pushed it behind for a corner.

Sterling was then replaced by Kiwior following Saliba's dismissal. A big chance then came for Bournemouth as Semenyo crossed into the box as Raya spilled the ball to Scott whose shot was saved brilliantly through quick reactions from Raya.

We then began to slow the game down as we approached the half time interval. White then had to watch the run of Semenyo as he made it In front before being clipped by the winger as he won a foul. A wayward cross from Bournemouth then brung the half-time whistle from Rob Jones.

Half time views:

A very disjointed first half as a result of the sending off. However, we weren't creating much when Saliba was on.

Arteta will be disappointed with Trossard's lapse in concentration and Saliba's misunderstanding, but will still want a reaction from the other 10 on the pitch.

Hopefully we can stay strong defensively and play our game.

With the return of the second half, Adam Smith replaced Araujo. Bournemouth had an early chance as Outarra put in a cross to Semenyo who smashed over . Havertz then held the ball up superbly and managed to find Rice whose cross was awkwardly headed over by Havertz. Both sides had two spells of posession with nothing coming from it.

Outtara then delivered a dangerous ball in but Calafiori cleared. Moments later Semenyo delivered an inswinging cross from the other side that Tavernier headed wide of the far post. Outtara then beat White again however, his cross again went to the back post where no attacker was.

Bournemouth then broke the deadlock through a well-worked set piece. The ball was played along the floor into the box to Kluivert who flicked back to Ryan Christie who finished beautifully into the top corner. Bournemouth continued to push on as Kerkez's cross was accidentally cleared behind for a corner by Calafiori. The resulting corner was cleared.

Moments later, a sloppy back pass from Kiwior played the ball into the path of Evanilson who looked to slip past Raya and was brought down as the referee pointed to the spot. Kluivert stepped up to take a sent Raya the wrong way slotting the ball home. Substitute Kiwior was then taken off after his error, being replaced by Jesus while Nwaneri replaced Merino. Meanwhile Unal replaced Evanilson.

We looked to push however, nothing came as a harsh free kick was given against Nwaneri. Rice then worked well to get the ball to Calafiori whose cross was cleared. Jesus then danced forward into the box and appeared to fall over with the referee waving away any penalty claims. Time was running out as Jesus won a foul from Sinisterra.

We took it quickly but the following delivery searching for Havertz went into the arms of Kepa.

Unal then went down. Semenyo was then dispossessed as we looked to mount one last attack but it comes to nothing as Rob Jones blew the full time whistle.

Full time views:

A very poor second half performance despite the red card in the first half. We looked very sloppy and not up for it apart from a few players such as Rice and Gabriel.

With Saliba now out for Liverpool we can only hope that Saka will be back as we missed his spark today. Not much to reflect upon the game apart from not reacting to the first goal.

Anyhow, onwards and upwards as we look to face Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday in the Champions League.

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