Final Score: Bournemouth 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal’s troubles are far from slowing down as the club succumbed to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday. The Gunners misfired once more even though they lead through a goal scored by Hector Bellerin after half-time. However, as the game wore on, silly mistakes came back to haunt Arsenal and the Cherries were able to take full advantage as Callum Wilson and Jordan Ibe scored a goal each in quick succession.
From there, Arsenal were unable to bounce back and they eventually had to forfeit some much-needed 3 points. This loss marks their 5th consecutive game without a victory and the situation is only worsening for Arsene Wenger. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at how the Arsenal players fared tonight.
Arsenal Player Ratings
Petr Cech – 5.5/10
Cech was not tested much in the first-half but he could have done a lot better to restrict both Callum Wilson and Jordan Ibe for their respective goals.
Calum Chambers – 5/10
Chambers looked promising in the first-half as he kept Ryan Fraser’s efforts at bay but then he failed to track Wilson’s run for the goal. He made a similar error as Ibe lashed forward to score the second goal.
Shkodran Mustafi – 6/10
Mustafi acted as the experienced one at the back line against Bournemouth and was quite well-organised in the first-half. However, much like his teammates, Mustafi could not do much to keep the Cherries at bay in the final 20 minutes.
Rob Holding – 4.5/10
Holding was far from his best but the midfield did not really offer much protection. Also, he seemed to be lacking confidence for a good majority of the game.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 6/10
Maitland-Niles was definitely not at his best and looked frazzled in the second half. He allowed Fraser a little too much space which he gleefully exploited.
Hector Bellerin – 5.5/10
Bellerin may have netted Arsenal’s only goal but he was quite frustrating apart from that. He was quite wasteful and did a shoddy job at the back.
Granit Xhaka – 6/10
Xhaka maintained possession and made things tick in the middle but yielded very little impact. He merely acted as a spectator as Ibe surged forward to score the second goal.
Jack Wilshere – 8.5/10
People may have had doubts about Wilshere but after tonight’s performance, he put all those doubts to rest. Even as things fell apart around him, Wilshere maintained calm and did his job admirably in the midfield.
Alex Iwobi – 6/10
Iwobi brought in some energetic movement up front and was involved in the opening goal as well. It was not his best performance but compared to most of his teammates, he was decent enough.
Danny Welbeck – 3/10
Welbeck squandered a chance in the first-half and was just generally poor throughout the game. The Cherries defence had absolutely no trouble in restricting him.
Alexandre Lacazette – 5/10
Lacazette is frustrated and it shows. And one cannot blame him. His goals have dried up and his teammates are to be blamed for the same.
Subs:
Aaron Ramsey – 5/10
Ramsey came in right during the eye of the storm as Bournemouth scored the second goal and he could not do much thereafter.
Theo Walcott – 4/10
Did not have the time to make much of an impact.