A third sending-off in eight games proved too much for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal as they fell to their first defeat of the English Premier League season, losing 2-0 away to Bournemouth to leave the coach frustrated over his side’s costly mistakes.
Defender William Saliba was shown a red card on the half-hour mark after pulling down Bournemouth striker Evanilson and preventing a goal-scoring opportunity.
While the Gunners weathered the storm of previous sendings-off to grab draws against Brighton and Manchester City, this time they came up short at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
And ‘n diep omgekrapte Arteta says: “After 30 minutes, you get down to 10 men, you have to play 67, 68 minutes in this league again with 10 men – that’s an accident waiting to happen.
“It’s a game of errors… we made two big ones that have cost us a game. And yeah, it’s the third time we play in games with 10 men, and at this level, it’s very complicated.”
After a bright start for the visitors, the game changed when Saliba was sent off.
Making the most of their one-man advantage to pin the visitors back, Ryan Christie broke the deadlock in the 70th minute when fellow substitute Justin Kluivert flicked a low corner into his path, and the 29-year-old drilled it passed outstretched Gunners goalie David Raya and into the top corner to give Bournemouth the lead.
How good was this corner routine? 🔥 pic.twitter.com/EtW9OeHGho
Things went from bad to worse for Arsenal seven minutes later when Raya upended Evanilson in the box, and Kluivert scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 for coach Andoni Iraola’s Cherries at home.
Iraola tells Sky Sports: “For us it was an important game after losing the last one [1-0] against Leicester [before the international break]. We had to recover.”
Saliba, meanwhile, will miss this week’s big clash with Liverpool through suspension, while Bournemouth are getting ready to travel to Aston Villa.
SATURDAY’S PREM RESULTS
Ipswich 0 Everton 2, Southampton 2 Leicester 3, Newcastle 0 Brighton 1, Man United 2 Brentford 1, Fulham 1 Aston Villa 3, Tottenham 4 West Ham 1.
Nine matches down. One to go... pic.twitter.com/KvfwI39k8N