Arsenal’s recent Amazon Prime ‘All Or Nothing’ series showed manager Mikel Arteta’s emphasis on “non-negotiables”. His stirring team talks are obviously having an impact, as Bournemouth did not come close to negotiating the challenges posed by the Gunners in their 3-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
Arsenal started superbly. Their coordinated attacks had Bournemouth backtracking almost from minute one. Debutant Marcos Senesi, signed from Feyenoord, had a particularly tough time dealing with the Gunners. Gabriel Jesus outmuscled him early on before slotting the ball through to Gabriel Martinelli. His shot was saved but Martin Odegaard ran in to finish.
Arsenal added their second goal of the opening eleven minutes through the same player. Bukayo Saka found Ben White on the overlap. The defender crossed for Jesus who had the ball taken off his toes by Odegaard, whose shot found the back of the net. Once again the smart movement of Arsenal in the defensive third opened the door. The intelligent number nine play of Jesus created space for Odegaard and his finish did the rest.
Senesi’s troubles continued. While Arsenal found a lot of joy out wide with the White-Saka overlaps, their best moments came when they targeted the new man in the Bournemouth defence. Martinelli breezed past him at one stage, leading Jefferson Lerma to bust a gut and block the resulting cross. White fired in some appealing balls from the opposite flank but the Cherries just about held on.
Senesi found himself hooked at half time, as Scott Parker attempted to arrest the slide with two substitutions. But it was another centre half who hit the headlines when William Saliba scored an absolute stunner of a third for Arsenal. Seizing upon a drag-back on the edge of the box, the right-footed defender struck a left-footed drive that nestled beautifully in Mark Travers’ net.
The travelling Gunners saw the funny side of Bournemouth’s despair, singing “You’re going down with United”. It’s too early to speculate about all that, at least in Bournemouth’s case, but they did struggle to lay a glove on this Arsenal side.
A fine improvised finish from Martinelli trickled wide, but his confidence in trying the outside-the-box effort typified this Arsenal display. Downtrodden for so long, Arteta’s 22-23 vintage are playing with supreme belief. It was this same belief that came to the fore when a beautifully-weighted Odegaard ball found Jesus, who continued his superb Arsenal start with a smart dinked finish. Unfortunately even the power of positive thinking is no match for VAR, who chalked it off for a marginal offside.
Kieffer Moore forced a save from Aaron Ramsdale with a looping header. The striker had worked tirelessly for openings all afternoon but his header looked wide even before Ramsdale’s acrobatic intervention. A mazy run from Jordan Zemura also called the England international goalkeeper into action. These late forays looked unlikely to turn the tide, but the Cherries still asked questions of Arsenal’s defence.
Arsenal have won their first three matches of the Premier League season, and have every reason to be optimistic about what’s to come. The key now will be consistency, something they have often lacked. It was fatal to their top four challenge last season and must be addressed. But with smart signings like Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, plus players like Saliba integrating into the team, suggests this might be a better season than usual for Arteta’s side.
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