On Grand National day, Arsenal showed signs they could yet fall at the final fence.<\/p>\n
A win over Bournemouth would have seen Arsenal go 12 points clear, at least temporarily. At this late stage, that would have been a very healthy lead, even with Manchester City holding two games in hand.<\/p>\n
The remainder of the season might have become a procession. Instead, Arsenal were beaten 2-1, delivering a performance so disappointing it may leave them not staggering, but crawling towards the finish line.<\/p>\n
Arsenal look equally short on energy and ideas. In recent weeks, the fundamentals which have underpinned their campaign have begun to desert them. They have now suffered three consecutive domestic defeats, ending their cup campaigns and now undermining their title bid. A positive result against Sporting CP in midweek now looks like the anomaly.<\/p>\n
At his post-match press conference, Arteta was asked whether he was surprised at how poorly his team performed.<\/p>\n
The Arsenal manager paused, looked down at the desk in front of him and rubbed his thigh uneasily. He is not prone to criticising this group in public. Confidence is fragile \u2014 and at this crucial stage of the season, precious.<\/p>\n
A few seconds passed in silence. Eventually, Arteta delivered his reply. \u201cWe were very far from what we\u2019ve shown,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s for certain \u2014 especially in certain areas that are critical. And when you play against a team like Bournemouth, they were very clear. But, again, I don\u2019t want to criticise any player, especially here publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n
If that was the sanitised, censored assessment, one wonders what he must have really thought. The words left unsaid carried most weight.<\/p>\n
On a day when composure was critical, Arsenal struggled to maintain theirs. Poor decisions were made, passes went awry. \u201cWe did a lot of strange things,\u201d a shell-shocked Arteta told TNT Sports afterwards.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/04\/11121847\/GettyImages-2270853065.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n Arsenal struggled to assert themselves at the Emirates (Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first-half goal they conceded was uncharacteristically sloppy \u2014 Ben White appeared to switch off, allowing Adrien Truffert to run in behind untracked. There was undoubtedly good fortune in how his cross ricocheted off William Saliba to land in the path of Eli Junior Kroupi.<\/p>\n Arsenal were handed \u2014 quite literally \u2014 a route back into the game after Ryan Christie blocked a shot with his arm. Victor Gyokeres converted the penalty, a rare moment of authority in this Arsenal display.<\/p>\n But the equaliser did not deter Bournemouth. They kept pressing, kept playing, kept Arsenal largely at bay.<\/p>\n Nerves began to eat away at the basic principles of Arsenal\u2019s game. David Raya, so commanding in midweek, looked edgy. Arsenal continued playing out from the back, offering Bournemouth encouragement. It\u2019s a curiosity of this team that their most intricate, ambitious interplay tends to happen close to their own goal.<\/p>\n Eventually, a Bournemouth turnover led to the winner, with Alex Scott running free to finish past Raya. Another moment of painful silence on a dark afternoon for Arsenal.<\/p>\n This defeat falls in the same gameweek in which Arsenal were beaten at home by Aston Villa in 2024. Those three dropped points ultimately proved the difference between being champions and another second-place finish. The Bournemouth chants of \u201csecond again\u201d will haunt the Arsenal players tonight.<\/p>\n \n David Raya looked edgy at times (Alex Burstow\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Most disturbingly, this performance is not some isolated aberration. It is part of a wider pattern: that of a team seemingly diminished by the weight of expectation.<\/p>\n Arsenal now find themselves hoping for a favour from Chelsea, who host Manchester City at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. It is telling that they now look to others: right now, they do not look a team capable of delivering the title on their own merit.<\/p>\n Arteta must hope he can inject some life into his team. He appeared to urge his medical staff to do all they can to get the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber available again. \u201cWe need everything,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cWe need, first of all, we need everybody fit and available. So the ones that are not involved, the ones that are not with us, that are really big, important players, we need them immediately with us because then we\u2019re going to be much stronger.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then the other ones, they need to stand up. Me, the first one, and embrace this challenge and go for it. So today we have to suffer. It\u2019s painful. It\u2019s a terrible feeling. Tomorrow is a different day. And if somebody would have said to me in August, we are in this position right now in April, I\u2019m sure we would all take it.\u201d<\/p>\n Arteta may be right about expectations in August, but it\u2019s what has slipped away from Arsenal in the last few weeks that\u2019s at the forefront of their supporters\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n A deflated Arteta called the result \u201ca big punch on the face\u201d. His team appear to be on the ropes. In the coming days, they must find a way to ensure it does not become a knockout blow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Grand National day, Arsenal showed signs they could yet fall at the final fence. A win over Bournemouth would have seen Arsenal go 12 points clear, at least temporarily. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/04\/11122039\/GettyImages-2270851812-scaled.jpg\")
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