Arsenal keeps pressure on City in title race
Arsenal kept the pressure on Manchester City in the Premier League title race after a comprehensive 3-0 triumph over Bournemouth at Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta's side moved four points clear at the league summit with this victory but City pulled it back to one with a thumping 5-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers later in the day, and still has a game in hand on the Gunners.
Bukayo Saka opened the scoring from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time, with Arsenal securing a deserved reward for its first-half dominance.
Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice made sure of three points with late finishes as defeat left Bournemouth, which had an Antoine Semenyo strike ruled out in the closing stages, 10th on the table.
A flowing Arsenal move almost ended in Trossard converting Ben White's 10th-minute cross, only for a last-gasp Marcos Senesi block to thwart the Belgium forward.
Bournemouth had Mark Travers to thank soon after as the goalkeeper denied fizzing efforts from Kai Havertz and Saka, as well as a one-on-one with William Saliba.
Travers's one-man resistance continued when pushing away Thomas Partey's low left-footed curling attempt before Rice fired narrowly wide after Havertz's delicate header.
Yet Arsenal finally got the breakthrough as Travers felled the marauding Havertz, with the VAR confirming the spot-kick decision, before Saka coolly swept into the bottom-left corner from 12 yards.
Saka should have doubled his tally after the interval but arrowed a glorious opportunity straight at Travers following a smart offload from Havertz, who went close minutes later.
David Raya was forced into action at the other end to deny Dominic Solanke after 53 minutes, while Justin Kluivert whipped a free-kick just over the goal.
That spell of Bournemouth pressure came to an abrupt end with 20 minutes to go when Rice twisted to play through for Trossard, who slotted a smart right-footed finish into the bottom-right corner.
The Cherries thought they had snatched a goal back just three minutes later but Semenyo's rebounded strike after Ryan Christie hit the crossbar was ruled out for a Solanke foul on Raya, with the VAR confirming the on-field decision.
Arsenal then suffered a similar fate with the officials as Gabriel Magalhaes's rocketed volley was disallowed for offside, but Rice was not to be denied in stoppage-time as he fired Gabriel Jesus's throughball under the helpless Travers.
Arsenal has now won 14 of its 16 Premier League games so far in 2024, dropping points only against Manchester City (0-0) and Aston Villa (0-2) this year.
That incredible run of form ensures a tantalising title race will continue towards the final two games of the season, when Arsenal travels to Manchester United and then hosts Everton on the last day.
While defeat at Arsenal would have been a disappointment, Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola can look back on this campaign with fond memories.
The Cherries have never won more matches in a top-flight season than their 13 in 2023-2024 (also 13 in 2018-2019) and despite this underwhelming performance, they will have another chance to set an outright club record when they host Brentford before visiting Chelsea on the final day, with a top-half finish still possible.
