And with that, farewell. Obviously this isn’t the end of today’s football - join John Brewin for Wolves v Huddersfield here...
...and then later on he’ll (theoretically) also be with you for the Copa Libertadores final between River and Boca. But as those of you following that one yesterday will testify, let’s not count the old chickens just yet.
Here’s your match report, courtesy of Sachin Nakrani at the Vitality.
As for Bournemouth...hmmm, tricky one. That’s three 2-1 defeats on the spin now, and while they did pretty well in the first-half, they faded after the break. And two of their next three games are against Manchester City and Liverpool. Not ideal.
Well Arsenal deserved the win, especially for their performance in the second-half, but towards the end there you could very much see them making a complete balls of it. Still, back to winning ways for them, and another goal for Aubameyang - eight for the season now, level top-scorer in the division with Sergio Aguero.
Full-time: Bournemouth 1-2 Arsenal
Peeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins +5: ...but Stanislas hoys it over the bar!
90 mins +4: Wilson is chopped down a yard outside the area by Mustafi. Free-kick to the left of centre...
90 mins +3: Ramsey chases the ball down the right side of the box with Daniels. He stumbles, then stumbles again, the second time in the area, but no penalty given. Probably the right call. Meanwhile Aubameyang - who at this stage looks like he’s scored the winner - is replaced by Eddie Nketiah.
90 mins: Four minutes of added time. Aubameyang has a shot from a way out but drags it way wide.
89 mins: Bournemouth have a corner from the left: Fraser takes it to the near post, Daniels gets a flick-on, it loops up off - I think - Sokratis and heads for the corner of the net, but Leno leaps into the air and paws the ball away.
Updated
88 mins: Arsenal trying to take the sting out of the closing stages by knocking the ball around in the Bournemouth half. Can’t afford another brain fade like the did at the end of the last half...
86 mins: Mustafi got himself involved in that collision, and he’s down having some treatment.
85 mins: Close! Lerma - who’s had an up and down afternoon - lets fly from way downtown, and it hits the post! Eeesh, a few inches to the right and that would’ve been quite a strike. And then Stanislas is away, down the right side of the box, he tries a low cross to Wilson but it’s too close to Leno. Wilson collides with the keeper, both men are winded but should be OK.
84 mins: Last push for Bournemouth: Fraser bustles down the left but his cross is cleared before it can reach any of the intended targets.
82 mins: And now another sub for Bournemouth - Lys Mousset is on for King.
81 mins: Francis gets a blow to the head but looks like he’ll be OK. Now a change for Arsenal, as Iwobi is replaced by Aaron Ramsey.
80 mins: Ooof, big chance for Stanislas: the ball finds him on the edge of the six yard box, surrounded by defenders, not much space, but he can’t get any power on the stabbed finish and Leno saves easily.
79 mins: Change for Arsenal, as Matteo Guendouzi replaces Torreira.
78 mins: Kolasinac barrels into the area from the left, shoots but it’s into the side-netting.
75 mins: Stanislas’s first involvement is to pass the ball back to Cook when he had several options further forward, and his second involvement is to curl an attempted pass down the line out of play. Only way is up from here.
73 mins: Those changes see ‘Uncle’ Junior Stanislas and Lewis Cook replace Brooks and Gosling.
72 mins: Bournemouth have run out of steam a bit in the last 15-odd minutes. Lerma shifts to Fraser, but his shot is easily saved by Leno. Cue some changes for Bournemouth...
70 mins: That Sanchez-Mkhitaryan transfer really is one of those rare cases where both sides lost.
69 mins: Mkhitaryan! Oh, Mkhitaryan! Brooks is dispossessed just outside his own box and Arsenal counter at pace. Aubameyang slips the ball to Mkhitaryan, in some space on the left of the box, but he firstly takes a trampoline of a first touch, then as he tries to rescue the situation slips over and bunts the ball out of play. Oh mate.
67 mins: Simple enough. Iwobi slides a pass to Kolasinac on the left side of the box, who in turn slides a low cross into the six yard box, and there’s Aubameyang to slide it home. Lots of sliding.
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-2 Arsenal (Aubameyang 67)
It’s been coming...
Updated
65 mins: Xhaka winds up for a shot from outside the area, but instead tries to play in Kolasinac, only for the big man to stop running and the ball runs out of play.
64 mins: Both teams have a chance inside a minute: Aubameyang fires over, but Brooks hits a rather weak effort straight at Leno.
63 mins: Mustafi and Daniels barge into each other - didn’t seem like there was fault from either, but Bournemouth get the free-kick for some reason. Odd couple of minutes in officiating.
62 mins: Xhaka leathers Brooks in the shins but for reasons passing understanding is not even penalised as far as a free-kick.
61 mins: Arsenal could do with something...
Ozil sitting firmly on the bench while Ramsey, Guendouzi and Nketiah warm up. Certainly doesn't look like he'll be on any time soon.
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) November 25, 2018
59 mins: Lerma tries a sort of acrobatic, over-the-head lobbed volley back into the box, but it goes over the whole defence and Leno catches.
57 mins: Ooof, close. Torreira shoots from the edge of the area, it flicks off Ake’s head, loops up and Begovic just has to stand, watch and hope. Happily for him it loops just wide of the post.
54 mins: Fraser was born for the word ‘busy’, and he displays that by busying himself down the right, flinging over a cross which is just too far ahead of Brooks in the middle. Daniels gets closer at the back post but his stretch only succeeds in toeing the ball out of play.
52 mins: Football changes every year, for the better or worse depending on your point of view, but one constant is the announcement over the PA that someone needs to move their car. The parking at Dean Court is ample, so no excuses for this person. Meanwhile, Nate Ake goes into the book for going through the back of Mkhitaryan.
49 mins: Penalty? Fraser runs in front of Kolasinac and crumples, but it might not have been in the box and it might not have been a foul. Otherwise, etc and so on and so forth.
Updated
48 mins: Quiet start to the half other than that Brooks cross. King shoots and it hits Sokratis square in the face.
46 mins: You’ll be pleased to learn that shadows now broadly cover the pitch so the linesman’s problem with the sunshine is reduced. The second-half is underway, and Brooks dances delicately down the left, but his cross is easily claimed by Leno.
The players are back out, and we’re back on for the second-half.
This seems...bad.
2 - Arsenal are one of only two teams still yet to lead at half time in a Premier League game this term (alongside Cardiff), failing to do so since the final day of last season (1-0 v Huddersfield). Issue. #BOUARS pic.twitter.com/h5tilfTRaL
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 25, 2018
More body part chat from Kristof in Berlin: “Back when Darmstadt still played Bundesliga football, we had the exact same body part constellation when they faced (!) Dortmund. Think about it...”
It’s possible I’ve just posted something extremely rude in German there. Apologies.
Decent half that. Probably just about right that it’s level, although with some more precise finishing Arsenal would be ahead. That really was a special equaliser though: Iwobi will get some criticism for giving the ball away because he was dispossessed trying a roulette in Bournemouth’s box, but he was trying to get himself out of a tight space and if a forward can’t try something there, there’s something wrong elsewhere in the team.
Half-time: Bournemouth 1-1 Arsenal
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins + 1: With seconds remaining in the only minute of stoppage time, Iwobi loses the ball in Bournemouth’s box and the hosts counter at pace. Wilson squares to Brooks, who contemplates a shot before spotting Josh King in more space on the right of the box, and he opens his body and whistles the cleanest strike you could wish to see into the top corner. Smashing goal.
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-1 Arsenal (King 45+1)
On the absolute stroke of the stroke of half-time!
Updated
45 mins: Lerma stabs a pass through that flicks off an Arsenal player for Brooks...but again he’s flagged offside. And again he might just have been on...but that was a tight decision. No big criticism for the lino there.
43 mins: A nascent set-to involving Brooks and Xhaka is doused and prevented from becoming a stramash.
42 mins: “Well, I’ve noticed that Mkhitaryan is playing,” writes former US president (well, sounds like it) Richard T.W. Arthur, “Misplaced passes, dawdling on the ball, ballooning the ball into the stands, failing to track back...Why the heck is he preferred to Ramsey?”
Ramsey’s rubbish, don’t you know? So rubbish they are letting him leave for nothing.
40 mins: There’s Bellerin again, sliding to keep the ball in play at the byline, and his cut back eventually falls to Mkhitaryan outside the box, but his first time shot nearly clears the stand, never mind the bar.
39 mins: Arsenal nearly get a second: Mkhitaryan finally does something of note by slipping a nice pass to Bellerin down the right, he cuts it back and Iwobi’s right foot is cocked, but Cook (I think) nips in to clear.
37 mins: Bournemouth try a free-kick routine which involves Fraser pretending to take it, then Brooks pretending to take it, then Fraser actually taking it, but it was all a colossal waste of time as the cross barely beat the first man.
36 mins: If you’re not familiar with this film...keep it that way. I beg you.
@NickMiller79
— Serge Nuffler (@SergeNuffler) November 25, 2018
Matt's crucial question rephrased: “Is this the only PL fixture where both teams include those body parts in their names that inspired a truly classic movie such as 'The Human Centipede'?”
I can't think of a movie involving liver and chest...
35 mins: Henrikh Mkhitaryan is playing. I only mention it because I’ve only just noticed.
“I’m happily watching a very good Arsenal side beating Brighton on TV’s red button,” writes Charles Antaki, “while listening to the other, less good, Arsenal side is struggling against Bournemouth. All I’m hearting is rising hoots of derision - and now an own goal. Remind me, which is the better league?”
The better league is whichever one you prefer, Chaz.
34 mins: Arsenal on top now: Bournemouth again give an Arsenal player a bit too much space from outside the box, this time Iwobi, and he opens up his body to try a right-footed curler into the corner, but Begovic dives and makes the save.
Updated
32 mins: Incidentally, for all the people suggesting Bournemouth v Arsenal in the body parts note (15 mins): that was Matt’s nomination. He was talking about this game. Obviously.
30 mins: Good lord! Kolasinac cuts back from the left side of the box, it looks like a poor pass as no Arsenal player was anywhere close to where he played it, but Lerma slides, stretches and absolutely rifles the ball past his own keeper from the edge of the box. Remarkable.
GOAL! Bournemouth 0-1 Arsenal (Lerma OG 30)
What a hit! What an ogger!
Updated
27 mins: This time Fraser takes, sends it towards the top corner and Leno makes a brilliant save, but it wouldn’t have counted anyway because the referee had blown for a foul.
26 mins: Slapstick! Referee Pawson is lecturing the players in the box as the free-kick is lined up, but Brooks tries a backheel to widen the angle for Fraser. Problem is, Fraser stands stock still, so an Arsenal defender happily accepts the donation - BUT WAIT! The referee hasn’t blown his whistle, so much to the mystifying chagrin of anyone to do with Arsenal, they have to take it again...
25 mins: Sokratis and King chase a long pass from Daniels down the Bournemouth left, the big Greek and the smaller Norwegian grapple heartily, but it’s the former who is penalised and they have a free-kick on the edge of the box.
23 mins: Good period for Arsenal: it’s Kolasinac this time who receives a cross at the back post, but while he gets some oomph behind the header, it is off target.
22 mins: ...which drops to Aubameyang at the back stick, but he snatches at the half-volley a little and it goes over the bar.
21 mins: Hmmm, slightly odd one as muscle man Kolasinac skims over a cross from the left, Begovic gets his legs all of a tizzy and has to flap the ball over the bar rather than catching it. Corner to Arsenal...
18 mins: This Arsenal defensive experiment has been a...mixed success so far. Mustafi might have been booked for that challenge on Fraser and went to ground far too early for the Brooks disallowed goal, Holding has looked a bit more drowning than waving a couple of times and Sokratis almost just donated a chance to Wilson, but the Bournemouth forward couldn’t quite keep the ball in play.
15 mins: Here’s Matt Davies-Adams (who, fun fact, attended the same Nottinghamshire comprehensive school as both me and much better Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor), with a crucial question: “Is this the only PL fixture where both teams include body parts in their names?”
Liverpool vs Manchester United/City?
13 mins: Mustafi flies in to what we’ll call a ‘thorough’ challenge on Fraser, taking the ball but also a bit of the man. He earns a mild rebuke from the referee, but nothing more.
12 mins: I confidently stated that Brooks was offside for that ‘goal’ earlier, but a replay suggested that the final touch may have come off an Arsenal defender. And he might not actually have been offside when the touch was taken. But other than that it was a solid call from both official and minute-by-minuter.
11 mins: “Re your statement that there hasn’t been much goalmouth action: would you say that this has been an intriguing tactical battle?” writes Adam Kline-Schoder. Why yes, funny you should mention that. Although those two incidents have shifted this from intriguing into actually good.
9 mins: And like me after a batch of what we suspect was some dodgy reheated rice a while back, there’s now action at both ends - Lucas Torreira is frankly afforded too much space just outside the box, so he narrows his eyes and fires in the shot, but it thunks against the post. The rebound falls to Iwobi, but he shanks it way askew.
8 mins: But there is now! Brooks has the ball in the net, a lovely tucked finish ‘neath Bernd Leno, but his right foot was offside and the eagle-eyed lino - not the one squinting into the yellow sun - popped his flag up.
Updated
7 mins: As that last entry might tell you, there hasn’t been much goalmouth action at either end.
Updated
6 mins: The sun is shining right in the lino’s eyes in the Bournemouth half. Any Arsenal player might want to chance their arms with some borderline offside runs, if they’re comfortable taking advantage of a compromised official.
3 mins: Gosling slips a pass to King running into that space on the left of Arsenal’s defence, Rob Holding napping rather, but his cross is hoyed way over Callum Wilson’s head.
2 mins: Duncan Edwards is confused. “Since the Guardian has recently praised Eddie Howe that normally would jinx the result in favour of Arsenal; except there’s also been an article praising Unai Emery. Therefore I’m saying it’ll be a close game, which normally means it’ll be a 3-0 win for someone. Help.”
1 min: We’re away. Bournemouth on the attack straight away but Josh King’s flicked pass looking for David Brooks is cut out.
Reminder that if Bournemouth win today they’ll go sixth, a mere point behind their opponents...
The players are out on the pitch. This means the match is about to start. The football match. Yes!
Unai Emery speaks: “It’s a small change, because the system does not change our style. Our adaptation today is 30% for Bournemouth, 70% for us. For how we can improve, how we can use our positions on the pitch.”
Eddie Howe speaks: “From our perspective we’re keen to get back to a good performance. Against Newcastle we didn’t really get going. There are subtle differences with Arsenal - they’ve still got good players, they’re outstanding technically, maybe defensively they’ve changed things slightly, but we’re in for a tough game as they did last season.”
Meanwhile...
Hi @wealdstonefc,
— Concord Rangers FC (@ConcordRangers) November 24, 2018
You left your bananas and lots of other rubbish behind in our changing rooms today.
We're open until late tonight if you'd like to come back and collect YOUR belongings.
Give us a buzz 📞
Ta. pic.twitter.com/d5ReltvZwP
This isn’t the only Arsenal team playing today: their women’s team is doing rather well against Brighton, and you can follow that one with William Unwin.
Pre-match reading? Pre-match reading. Here’s Jacob Steinberg on Eddie Howe and Bournemouth. Enjoy.
Now I am watching an English series to improve my English. Peaky Blinders. It is good but it is difficult (to understand), from Birmingham. And it’s very aggressive. But it’s good, it’s good.”
Updated
But what does it mean? Almost certainly nothing! Fun though.
Weirdest stat of the day: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 13 of his 17 #AFC goals (76%) on a Sunday.
— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) November 25, 2018
INTRIGUING team selections there. Looks like Emery has gone for three at the back, for - I think, correct me if I’m wrong - the first time this season, possibly in anticipation of Bournemouth doing the same. But they do not do the same, opting for a sort of 4-3-3/4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 thing. Ozil and Ramsey are on the bench, and Alex Lacazette is nowhere to be seen - apparently he has a mild groin twang, and like the most precious ornaments when a child comes to visit, he must not be risked.
Team news
Bournemouth
Begovic; Francis, Steve Cook, Ake, Daniels; Gosling, Brooks, Lerma; Fraser, King, Wilson. Subs: Boruc, Mings, Surman, Lewis Cook, Stanislas, Mousset, Defoe.
Arsenal
Leno; Sokratis, Holding, Mustafi; Bellerin, Torreira, Xhaka, Kolasinac; Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang. Subs: Cech, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Ozil, Nketiah.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Preamble
The autumn was great for these two teams. Who doesn’t love the autumn? Beautiful golden trees, loads of sport, cool enough that you can wear your good jackets but not so cold you get frostbite going to the shop. It is the best season, and I won’t hear otherwise.
Bournemouth and Arsenal seemed to enjoy it too. In September and October they played 21 games between them in all competitions, winning 17 and losing only two. Arsenal shook of the early season rust and life seemed good under Unai Emery. Bournemouth continued their extraordinary story from the nether regions of League One to being above Manchester United in the Premier League table.
And then November arrived, the wind chilled a bit more and both started to stumble, just a little. Bournemouth lost their last two games before the international break - one a little unluckily to United, the other less excusably to Newcastle - while Arsenal have drawn four of their last five. Clearly neither of these are huge problems, but both are at interesting points of their respective seasons. Will these stumbles turn into falls? Or will they right themselves?
Intriguing, when used to describe a football match, is usually a word that actually means ‘dull’, or ‘I’m trying to over-intellectualise a game that you poor plebs simply don’t understand, but it’s not your fault that you’re less intelligent than me.’ But in this case it genuinely is quite intriguing. Promise.
Stick with us, anyway. Should be good. Kick-off is 13.30 GMT.
