Arsenal 3-2 Bournemouth: Arsenal took the full spoils against AFC Bournemouth deep in injury time on Saturday. The Premier League leader made up for a 0-2 deficit in a spectacular game. Reiss Nelson took the lead as a substitute, with the assist on the 2-2 and the winning goal in the 98th minute.
Bournemouth has the most accomplished defense in the Premier League, mainly due to a 9-0 defeat at Liverpool, and Arsenal supporters were looking forward to Saturday afternoon’s home game. However, the fun of the fans quickly disappeared. Bournemouth took a 0-1 lead after a kick-off that had clearly been trained for after 9.11 seconds. Philip Billing’s goal was the second-fastest Premier League goal of all time.
Arsenal had to chase and had plenty of opportunities, through Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe, for example. However, they failed to pass Neto. The biggest chance of the first half was for Bournemouth, despite Arsenal’s clear predominance, but Aaron Ramsdale prevented Dango Ouattara’s 0-2 with an excellent save.
Second half
Fourteen goal attempts in the first half yielded nothing for Arsenal, who continued to press after the break. Out of the blue, however, it was Bournemouth that scored. Twelve minutes into the second period, Senesi headed in from a corner kick. It was his second goal of the season for the former Feyenoord player, after he scored against Newcastle United last month.
Arsenal really had to work now. The tension returned after Thomas Partey’s connecting goal, who scored with a volley after Smith-Rowe had headed the ball back towards goal after a corner. Smith-Rowe had come on for the injured Leandro Trossard in the first half, but was taken off again shortly after Partey’s goal, because Mikel Arteta wanted to bring Nelson.
Nelson had an immediate impact. Shortly after his entrance, the former Feyenoord player passed the ball to Ben White, who scored his first goal in the Arsenal shirt with a volley. Neto seemed to turn the bet, but the ball turned out to have crossed the line.
With twenty minutes left on the clock, Arsenal wanted more. The host kept accelerating and also had quite a few chances, for example via Gabriel Martinelli, Ødegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Bournemouth seemed to survive, but deep into injury time Nelson still rammed in the 3-2. For the attacker, it was his third goal of the season, in his third league game.
Thanks to Nelson’s star role, Arsenal maintained their five-point lead over pursuers Manchester City, who beat Newcastle United on Saturday. Manchester United have two games in hand and are currently 14 points behind Arsenal.
