Read David Hytner’s full match report from Bournemouth:
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Pretty straightforward for Arsenal, all told. They landed those two sucker punches midway inside the first half and, while Bournemouth rallied after the break, were never put in serious danger. Bournemouth just weren’t at their sharpest and what chances they created were generally snatched at until Cech made two good saves at the death. Arsenal were professional, controlled and go above Manchester City into third. Title race back on? We’ll have a better idea after they’ve played Leicester a week from now.
That’s all from me for today – thanks for your emails, tweets, insights and just for reading. Now please join the great man Rob Smyth for Chelsea v Manchester United. Bye!
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Full-time: Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal
Unspectacular but comfortable, and deserved.
90+3 min: A few seconds of win bonus time for Walcott, who comes on for Giroud.
90+1 min: Another right-sided Stanislas corner. Played short and Bournemouth come close twice! Francis nods the cross back and Cech repels a Cook lash from 12 yards. The ball comes out to Arter, who arrows one inside the near post, and Cech is down to make an even better stop, parrying superbly. Excellent double save and the closest the hosts have come.
90 min: That was Ramsey’s cue to almost make it three, running clear at an angle but unable to squeeze the ball past Boruc, who got out well. Three added minutes to come.
89 min: Arsenal are showing nothing in attack; they’re just locking it down, which is how they often win games now. And they’re doing it well ... although Cech has to jump to grab the ball after a neat Smith cross is turned towards goal by a combination of King and Gabriel.
88 min: Arter carries the ball far, but shoots wildly from 20 yards. That’s been a common refrain really. Bournemouth have found some nice little positions around the box but just haven’t shown the quality needed.
87 min: Stanislas creates something there though – his cross from deep is probably the best Bournemouth have put in all day and King should probably attack it more positively. It flies beyond him, comes off Gabriel and he isn’t sharp enough to respond.
86 min: Pugh finds the overlapping Daniels and his cross if deflected over by Bellerin for another corner. Koscielny gets in well to head Stanislas’ delivery away.
84 min: Right-sided corner for the home team, though, and the cavalry come up. Stanislas delivers well but it’s defended nicely too. It ends up back with Stanislas, whose ball into Francis is miscontrolled by the defender. It’s probably not going to happen for their team now.
83 min: Arter looks to thread Pugh through but Bellerin, another who has played well defensively, reads it well.
82 min: Here comes Kieran Gibbs for Arsenal. By the by, he’s 27 this year and, like Walcott, you wonder if it’d be better for him to move out of his comfort zone and shine somewhere else. Story for another day, maybe. For now, he replaced Sanchez.
79 min: So many Bournemouth moves have just broken down in the final pass or two. They haven’t been at their slickest, not at all, although Arsenal deserve credit for generally looking pretty alert.
77 min: That’s the end for Afobe now, as Grabban comes on. Been a tough game for Afobe, who has been starved of real opportunities to shine against his old club.
76 min: A sighting there of what Coquelin has been brought on for, as he gets right into Afobe when he receives possession halfway inside the Arsenal half. Possession is retained but Bournemouth have to slow things right down.
75 min: A low ball from Stanislas causes minor alarm as Koscielny diverts it – accidentally – to Cech. No Bournemouth player in view there though; Afobe was on his heels.
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74 min: Sanchez tries to trick down the left again but overruns the ball. He doesn’t quite look at his sharpest. Arsenal won’t be unhappy to see the ball at the other end though. Bournemouth’s momentum has definitely been pricked.
72 min: Daniels heads an Ozil delivery behind for an Arsenal flag kick. Surman hacks it away at the near post.
71 min: Arsenal put a decent move together but Ramsey’s angled 20-yarder trickles well wide.
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69 min: Bit of a scrappy spell in midfield now. You sense Arsenal have managed to ride out Bournemouth’s early sparkiness, although Pugh does dance down the left and put in a low centre. It’s cleared.
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67 min: Early sighter for Stanislas, 25 yards out and in space, but it’s scuffed. Think he will be playing quite centrally in support of Afobe. Arsenal make a substitution now and Oxlade-Chamberlain, quieter this half and not always the most reliable defensively, is replaced by the more solid Francis Coquelin.
66 min: Now Ritchie has yet another go and yet again it’s well off target. He’s better than he’s shown today. Howe makes his changes and King replaces the slightly frustrating Gosling; then Ritchie goes off and Stanislas, as promised, comes on.
64 min: Gosling has one of the less impressive shots you’ll see all season, scooping a weird effort yards high and wide. We are soon to see Junior Stanislas for Bournemouth.
63 min: Ritchie gets a bit lucky, slipping over but winning a free kick after Ramsey is judged to have clambered on him. It’s a dangerous position on the right. It’s a good ball in this time but headed away from in front of Cech.
62 min: For all that Bournemouth are playing better, they need to score soon. Surprised we haven’t seen Iturbe, Grabban or King yet as clear chances have been few.
60 min: Sanchez shows excellent close control to get around Smith – who looks scared to offer a challenge for fear of conceding a penalty – on the left byline and the net is vacant if a visiting player can convert. But there’s nobody in the six-yard box, when Giroud should probably be there to gobble it up.
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59 min: Played in low and entirely unthreateningly. Bournemouth have wasted all of their set pieces.
58 min: Free kick to Bournemouth midway inside Arsenal’s half after Gosling is wrestled down. They look much more energetic and proactive now. It comes to little but they have Arsenal pegged back – and Daniels wins a corner...
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56 min: Now Smith is tripped by Giroud, who immediately knows he’s done wrong – probably because, as the replay shows, he quite clearly left his foot in on purpose as the right-back marauded into the Arsenal half. Should be a booking, but isn’t.
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55 min: Afobe dispossesses Oxlade-Chamberlain in the centre circle and feeds Pugh, who cuts inside but is tackled as he shoots. Then Gosling tries to play Ritchie clear but there are too many man in the way. Arsenal find space at the other end straightaway and Sanchez sees a low right-footer parried behind by Boruc. From the corner, Giroud gets above Cook to plant a good header in but the goalkeeper catches. Chances coming at both ends now.
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53 min: Arter plays the ball smartly into Afobe and there’s a chance if he can get his first touch right, but the ball gets away from him. Bournemouth look a sustained threat for the first time though.
52 min: Ramsey – very good today – clips a ball in to Ozil and his cross isn’t far beyond Giroud. Boruc gathers and Bournemouth counter with a chance for Smith! He beats Koscielny inside the box and, as the ball sits up, volleys just wide of the near post. Might have done better there. Smith has probably been his side’s best attacker, all from right-back.
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50 min: Ritchie receives the ball again in Ritchie Range and it’s probably his best effort of the game yet, but still struck a yard over.
48 min: Front-footed start from Bournemouth though. Fans getting behind them. Arter, Gosling and Afobe link up neatly on the edge of the box, but Koscielny is in smartly to stop the latter getting onto Gosling’s return ball.
47 min: Surman tries to find Pugh with a crossfield ball but it sails over his head. Bournemouth win the ball back from the throw and try to work it down the left, but can’t pick a way through.
Peeeeeep! Second half begins.
Can Bournemouth come back?
Wonder if there’ll be much comeback after the game about Kevin Friend’s decision not to send Flamini off at 0-0, by the way – the more you see it, the more you can’t understand why it wasn’t a red.
That was a good half from Oxlade-Chamberlain, with or without the goal. He has the talent to deliver. I think that there were a couple of years where he was almost a victim of his own bright, upbeat personality and maybe did more in the media than his work on the pitch merited. A case of putting the cart before the Ox, perhaps.
Half-time: Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal
All to do for Bournemouth, then. Not a lot happened for 24 minutes but those quick, clinical finishes from Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain changed the complexion completely and, while they created one or two half-chances after that, the home team have not really got going. Arsenal have been in control and can be very happy with their half’s work. But – this one is far from over. It’s Arsenal after all. Stay with us.
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45+2 min: Bournemouth probing as the half draws to a close, and Monreal ballwatches badly as Smith chests down a diagonal ball at the far post. Cech is out quickly to bat his effort behind for a corner, which is flicked on and eventually cleared.
45 min: Smith gets space to cross from the right but the wind, again, takes it just that little bit too far.
44 min: Now Afobe does get in behind, played down the inside left by Pugh, and wins a corner. It’s played short very quickly indeed, but Ramsey stops a one-two reaching Pugh and perhaps Bournemouth would have been better playing that into the box.
43 min: Afobe seems to have got a scent of the ball beyond the Arsenal defence but is offside. Just hasn’t happened for him or Bournemouth yet. Arsenal are managing this well.
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41 min: Arsenal work the ball very nearly out of defence in a tight area but Gabriel gets a little fed up upon seeing the ball played back to him for a third time and gets rid.
40 min: Left-back Daniels makes an excellent, surging run forwards and his ball finds Ritchie, 20 yards out, who tries to whip one into the top corner but skies it. He’s been known to plant those in the net but seems to be overcooking things today.
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38 min: Better from the home side, finally moving the ball about as they can, but Gosling and Afobe can’t read each other and the former’s pass on the 18-yard line goes astray.
36 min: Those couple of sights for Bournemouth after the second goal aside, Arsenal look in total control really and are seeing plenty of the ball.
35 min: Unless they can muster something in the next 10 minutes you wonder whether Bournemouth might be tempted to change things at half-time. Grabban would be a logical introduction to partner Afobe and add a bit of movement in threatening areas.
33 min: Giroud wins a corner by the left-hand flag. He air kicks it when it comes in low-ish at the near post, and the home team clear.
31 min: Afobe watch – he’s so far cut a rather isolated figure, which you suspect will need to change sharpish. Pugh gets forward superbly now though, outfoxing a dozy Gabriel on the left and giving himself a clear sight of goal ... but Bellerin is back superbly to force him to squirt the ball wide just as he sees the whites of Cech’s eyes.
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29 min: The kind of clinical double salvo that Arsenal haven’t been managing recently. Bournemouth have responded with a bit of spirit, and Arter now can’t quite weight a pass that could/should have sent Pugh through. Arsenal demand a penalty at the other end when Monreal goes down, but nothing doing.
27 min: Well, those were two bolts from the blue weren’t they? It had been fairly underwhelming stuff until then although there was definitely a sense that Bournemouth hadn’t quite asserted themselves. Long way back for them now. They’ll want to look again at their defending for both of them.
As I write that, Arter lets fly from 20 yards and it dips, swerves and is fingertipped over superbly by Cech! He claims the resulting corner.
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Goal! Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal (Oxlade-Chamberlain 24)
Oh, my. Cook clumsily gives the ball away to Ramsey just outside the area; he promptly slips the Ox in on the right hand side of the box and his finish, arrowed beyond Boruc and twanging in off the post, is excellent. Two goals in two minutes – game over?
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Goal! Bournemouth 0-1 Arsenal (Ozil 23)
Arsenal score! Ramsey floats a ball to the back stick, Giroud gets up and heads back very intelligently, and Ozil is waiting – around 10 yards out – to run onto it and give it a fair whack into the roof of the net, so hard that the ball bounces right back out again. Great, clinical finish.
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21 min: Ozil sets his sights and tries to pick Sanchez out with a radar-like ball from inside his own half. It’s accurate but Sanchez, caught out by some smart stepping-up by the home defence, is offside.
20 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain has a crack of his own from range and it’s blocked too. Scrappy stuff just now.
19 min: Arter is fine now. Afobe throws the ball sportingly back to Cech.
18 min: Nice bit of play in a tight area by Ritchie, whose shot is blocked on the edge of the box, then an Arter drive meets a similar fate. Arsenal counter and a cross is cleared, play continuing even though Arter is down in a heap after a challenge in the middle of the park with Ramsey. Finally the ball is put out and he gets treatment. The crowd aren’t pleased but it was actually Bournemouth who played on.
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16 min: Not quite the free-flowing festival we’d hoped for yet. Conditions definitely seem difficult and possession is being ceded liberally at the moment.
14 min: Chance for Sanchez! Ramsey floats a really nice ball over the top that Giroud can’t latch onto, but the defence miss it too and it sits up for Sanchez at the far post. A player of his gifts should probably hit the target but he lashes the first real effort of the game over the top.
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13 min: Ritchie swings it in from the right and it drifts out of play. It’s windy out there and there are a couple of signs that the players are finding it hard to adjust.
12 min: Really was silly stuff from Flamini, that. A senior player shouldn’t be taking those risks, and it’s the kind of rush of blood that has prevented him from being a genuinely top player. Now Monreal fouls Afobe down the right channel and Bournemouth have another dangerous set piece...
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10 min: The free-kick was wasted, Arter’s shot blocked by someone in Arsenal’s huddle of defenders. Bournemouth starting to get foot on ball a little more here now.
8 min: Two feet there from Flamini, crunching in on – I think – Gosling and he’s booked. Won the ball cleanly but I’ve seen red cards given for that, and it was in a pretty harmless area so thoroughly unnecessary. Bournemouth weren’t happy at all with that tackle and I think Arsenal have got a bit lucky.
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7 min: Overall, though, Arsenal have probably made the better start here. They’ve dominated the ball and strung a couple of threatening moves together.
6 min: Bournemouth are really setting about Arsenal when the Gunners get possession – there were four or five men around two away players as they tried to pick a way down the left flank just now. They play nice stuff, do Howe’s men, but their workrate is really phenomenal too.
4 min: Gabriel loses the ball inside his own half and the ball almost breaks for Pugh, Cech coming way out of his goal and having a little dribble up the right flank before clearing ... then Arsenal attack and only a last-ditch challenge by Cook stops Ozil getting in.
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2 min: An excellent run by the home right-back Adam Smith ends up with a cross sailing behind the goal.
1 min: Gosling tries to get onto a ball down the right but can’t keep it in. Wonder if Bournemouth might fancy getting at Arsenal down the channels at times, perhaps with a slightly more direct approach then normal.
Peeeeeeeeep!
Arsenal, in their golden away kit, get us underway and shoot from left to right as the cameras point.
The teams are coming out of the tunnel now, and there’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at the back of the Arsenal line. Big game for him, isn’t it? He can go one of two ways: be the outstanding all-round midfielder that he has many of the tools to be, or be perpetually on the verge of a Big Breakthrough like his squad-mate Theo Walcott. Which is it to be?
Michael Tega writes in from Ghana: “It used to be a “Super Sunday” when the giants of the EPL were in action but unfortunately, that was eons ago. It’s like someone seeing “Prison Break” for the “very” first time...ever! It’s sunny here in Accra but the weather is chiller than usual for Arsenal, Man Utd, and Chelsea fans....respectively. If I would ascribe an epigraph to today’s fixtures, it would read like this: 1. Arsene Wenger vs EPL referees. 2. Van Gaal (Anatoly Karpov) vs Hiddink (Bobby Fischer)**** Chess tacticians. 3. Diego Costa vs Man Utd/Chelsea fans.”
As for the current Arsenal – what’s gone awry in the last few weeks? Or is it just the last few weeks? Gooners might crucify me for this but I rarely see them play *that* well. In many of their wins this season they’ve done enough, but nothing to make you think they’re a relentless enough force to make a prolonged play for the title.
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On the flip side, Neil Einhorn writes: “Afobe was pretty useless on loan at Bolton a few seasons ago. Obviously still quite young, but I wouldn’t have bet on him becoming a regular in the Arsenal team based on that.”
Fair enough, although he was only 19 then and you have to iron out the creases. I remember Wenger once saying that a striker only really starts to hit his stride from the age of 23 – so it was a little curious that he got shot as soon as Afobe started scoring goal after goal.
Hitch3 on Afobe: “Hard to imagine that if we had both Benik Afobe and Chuba Akpom on the pitch (or even on the bench) over the last three games, we would have drawn successive blanks. Further examples of Wenger’s strange obstinacy when it comes to backing some players and not others.”
And Shaun Wilkinson on the player stockpiling point: “I agree with you about big clubs signing too many players. The question is, what to do about it? The obvious one for me is doing something about the loan system, which encourages this “sign them up and farm them out” attitude. I would start by limiting the amount of players a club can loan out per season, and if feasible putting the cap on the amount of loans an individual player can be involved in for one club.”
I think there should be a cap on the number of professional footballers a club can employ. In many cases it’s just ridiculous. Can’t see how it’d be enforceable though, sadly.
@NickAmes82 Where is Elneny??!And Arsenal played their best football this season with Walcott up front. Giroud hampers the team. Walcott in!
— Mark Daniel Kerry (@MarkDanielKerry) February 7, 2016
Should have mentioned that Elneny has just become a father – congratulations to him – so isn’t involved today.
As for Walcott, three league goals this season just isn’t enough. He’s had a fair amount of bad luck with injuries in his career but it’s got to the stage where you doubt whether he’ll ever deliver consistently at Arsenal. A change might be good for all parties.
Bournemouth really went for it in January, bringing in Afobe, Lewis Grabban and Juan Iturbe to offset some of the early-season injuries that looked like doing for them at one stage. You can only admire Howe, really – many managers would look to shut up shop, maybe buy a new defender or two, try and grit things out to get points on the board. Howe has gone top-heavy on attackers, staying true to his principles, and Bournemouth remain a real pleasure to watch.
Keep the conversation flowing this afternoon by emailing nick.ames.casual@theguardian.com or tweeting @NickAmes82
Benik Afobe faces his old club today on only his fifth appearance for Bournemouth, where things have gone rather splendidly for him so far. He spoke to ... errr ... me on Friday (probably not cool to plug this, I know) about many things, but most notably his lack of opportunities at Arsenal.
“I love them, love everyone at Arsenal, but it would have been nice to have got my chance because, to be honest, I don’t think I got a fair chance in the first team. I never made an appearance while there have been players who haven’t had great Arsenal careers who played five or 10 games, but that’s a story for another day.
“Maybe it was better to leave Arsenal without playing a game because everyone knows I didn’t get a chance. If I had played four or five games and was terrible, you start thinking you are an Arsenal reject. For me it was just that the chance didn’t come.”
Do you agree that he should have been given a go? Arsenal could do worse now than have him around as a Giroud alternative – he’s well on the way to being more than good enough. He was too professional to name names when talking about those who “haven’t had great Arsenal careers” but I put it to you that a name sounding like “Yaya Sanogo” might not have been miles away from his thoughts. Is Afobe a victim of big clubs’ insistence on signing too many players, particularly youngsters? I think so.
Today's teams
Bournemouth: Boruc, Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels, Surman, Ritchie, Gosling, Arter, Pugh, Afobe. Subs: Iturbe, King, Stanislas, Federici, Distin, Grabban, O’Kane.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud. Subs: Gibbs, Mertesacker, Ospina, Walcott, Campbell, Coquelin, Iwobi.
Referee: Kevin Friend
Coquelin and Mertesacker remain on the bench for Arsenal; Oxlade-Chamberlain is in for Campbell though. Howe keeps things as they were in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win at Palace.
Hello there
What a weekend it’s been already. Leicester making all the “Leicester won’t be fading away” headlines seem totally unnecessary. Manchester City not enjoying much of a pep from the news about Pep. Tottenham causing everyone to wonder whether they might actually win the league. Aston Villa winning again. Newcastle winning. At the top and at the bottom, it’s all starting to set up rather deliciously.
On paper, Bournemouth v Arsenal perhaps looks the most tasty weekend fixture of them all. There’ll be football played this afternoon alright – these two will pass, pass, pass and attack with speed, and it’s impossible to see this one not being hugely entertaining. The subplots are many: Arsenal haven’t scored in three, their old boy Benik Afobe has scored in his last three; fail to win here and Arsenal could remain as many as eight points adrift of the leaders, win here and Bournemouth would rise to the relatively giddy heights of 13th.
Realistically, you’d think Arsenal need the three points here to reignite a stuttering title challenge that looked pretty gift-wrapped a few weeks ago. There’ll be pressure – and Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth tend to play as if they don’t know the meaning of that word. It should be a belter – stay with us.
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, à propos of very little, why not read Rob Smyth’s Golden Goal on Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2009 strike against Arsenal - and the day Manchester United stopped being a team.
Some dates are seared into English football history: 30 July 1966, 26 May 1989, 26 May 1999, 13 May 2012. Few would add 14 February 1987 to that list. Paul Wilkinson scored a late equaliser for the leaders and eventual champions Everton against their bogey team Oxford, Ian Rush scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Leicester and, at Old Trafford, 13th-placedManchester United beat Watford 3-1.
That last scoreline does not tell the whole story. United’s third, scored by Gordon Strachan, was their first counterattacking goal under Alex Ferguson. We didn’t know it at the time but it was the start of a significant tradition: in the next 26 years, Ferguson’s United scored well over 100 counterattacking goals. There weren’t so many in the first five years under Ferguson, because the side was not good or quick enough, though there were a few glimpses of the future in a 3-1 win on Luton’s plastic pitch in 1989 and a staggering shellacking of Arsenal a year later.
In 1991 Ferguson bought Andrei Kanchelskis and Peter Schmeichel, and fast-tracked Ryan Giggs into the first team. The pace and decisiveness of Giggs andKanchelskis, and the distribution of Schmeichel, made United a great counterattacking team almost instantly, and it became a defining feature of Ferguson’s three great teams at Old Trafford. For two decades, United supporters were high on speed. Anthony Martial’s stunning goal against Stoke on Tuesdaywas a reminder of the way things used to be.
Read the full piece by clicking the link below:
