The days of misery for Arsenal fans looks to be coming to an end. Arsenal absolutely dominated AFC Bournemouth to win their third game in a row, which puts them atop the Premier League table again.
The remarkable turnaround Arsenal have undergone, from being an 8th place laughingstock to legitimate Champions League contenders, within the span of two seasons has been truly incredible. Every single Arsenal fan and media pundit that called for Mikeal Arteta’s head early on last season should now be on their hands and knees apologizing to the Spanish manager. He has singlehandedly revitalized Arsenal back into a Premier League power.
And this game was the perfect example of the turnaround.
Even though Bournemouth was playing in front of their loyal (yet extremely small) home supporters, the Cherries never stood a chance against the might of Arsenal. The Gunners dominated every single aspect of this game from ball possession (59%-41%), shots (14-6), shot on target (6-1), number of passes (575-403), and passing accuracy (89%-78%). This game was never close as Arsenal took this game away from Bournemouth in under fifteen minutes.
Newly anointed captain, Martin Odegaard, scored a brace (1st goal: 5′; 2nd goal: 11′) against a very slow and lazy Bournemouth defense that sealed this win for Arsenal. I wish I could elaborate more on the game, but there’s really nothing else to say. Arsenal simply played Bournemouth off the park.
And the two new summer signings, Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba (who’s actually just a returning loanee, but this is his first season with the first team), had a lot to do with that.
Jesus looks like a completely new player at Arsenal. At Manchester City, there was glimpses of the talent the Brazilian striker had, though they were mostly contained to brief bursts of form across 2–3 week spans per season. Plus, his finishing was spotty at best as he missed nearly 60 ‘would-be” goals during his half decade at City.
I thought that he was going to play similar for Arsenal (if not worse) as the attacking talents at City were, in my opinion, far superior to anything Arsenal could muster.
Yet, Jesus took his final “purple patch” of form at the end of the last season and turned it up to a whole new level in North London. He was directly responsible for Odegaard’s two goals with his silky dribbling and first-touch, scored an offside goal that would have put Arsenal up by four, and missed a golden chance right at the end of the game. Gabriel Jesus owned Bournemouth and has proven me wrong. He’s a legit starting striker.
As for Saliba, like I said after the Crystal Palace game, he really could be the real deal for the Gunners (maybe even the next Virgil van Dijk). I know he has only gone up against Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, and Leicester City, but he’s stifled each one of those team’s attacks like it was nothing.
The only reason why Bournemouth had a shot on target today was because Aaron Ramsdale dove for a slow, wayward header (which Saliba defended) just to get some action. Saliba gave the Bournemouth attack nothing.
And he may have scored the goal of the season with his incredible top-corner strike from just inside the box. I don’t think there’s been a better shot from a center-back in the Premier League since Vincent Kompany’s title-clinching wondergoal against Leicester a few seasons ago. The shot was just that good.
Nevertheless, Scott Parker and his Bournemouth side shouldn’t take too much credence from this result as they were huge underdogs to win this game. If Bournemouth hope to survive the relegation drop this season, these aren’t the kinds of games that will define their season. They need to beat the likes of Everton, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Fulham, etc. and hope to draw/win the occasional match against the traditional Top-6 to have a chance of a second Premier League season.
Anyway, back to Arsenal, I’m really starting to believe more and more in Arteta and his young team. Even though they’ll have two massive challenges on September 4th (when they face Manchester United) and October 1st (when they face Tottenham Hotspur), these kinds of matches should give them courage and belief they can beat both Spurs and United.
If Arsenal can get 4 points and play convincing football against Spurs and United, then I don’t see why they can’t squeak past Spurs, Chelsea, or Liverpool for the fourth Champions League spot and end their six-year long drought from Europe’s elite competition.
Images Source: Featured Image:
