Arsenal saw their greatest weapon in set-pieces become their biggest weakness as Bournemouth scored twice from dead-ball situations to complete a 2-1 comeback win at the Emirates.
The Gunners were leading 1-0 through Declan Rice’s opener on his 100th Gunners appearance – but Bournemouth used Arsenal’s greatest strength against them twice in eight second-half minutes.
Dean Huijsen’s header from a long throw brought Bournemouth level, and Arsenal were further stunned when Evanilson headed home at the back post from a corner which Marcus Tavernier flicked on.
VAR checked Evanilson’s winner for a potential handball from the forward but the clearest replay showed the ball missed his hand. It was the fourth set-piece goal conceded by Arsenal in their last three Premier League games at home – and it helped earn Bournemouth’s first ever win at Arsenal.
The result is a huge boost to Bournemouth’s European hopes as they jumped up to eighth in the Premier League table, after Fulham’s loss at Aston Villa earlier in the day. Should the Cherries stay there and Manchester City win the FA Cup, Andoni Iraola’s side would likely qualify for the Europa Conference League.
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But for Arsenal, it’s no wins in three as preparation for their biggest match of the season against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final second leg on Wednesday night.
“It didn’t create positive momentum but it’s created a lot of anger, frustration, rage, disappointment – let’s use all that for Wednesday,” said Arteta to Sky Sports after the game.
“We’ve lost points here to Palace, Fulham and Brentford – it’s something we need to improve.
“We had so many opportunities, we had big spaces, opened them up but we needed to score and we didn’t. And when you defend the box like we did and concede two goals from set pieces at this level it’s very difficult to earn the three points.
“We didn’t kill them, we gave them hope and they scored from two set-pieces and it became very chaotic.”
Reported by Sky Sports
