ikel Arteta’s side enjoyed a comfortable win over Bournemouth, with Kai Havertz scoring his first goal for Arsenal.
The Gunners outclassed their hosts with a 4-0 victory, moving them within striking distance of Manchester City, who visit the Emirates Stadium next weekend. However, Bukayo Saka’s injury late on will worry Arteta.
The Gunners outclassed their hosts with a 4-0 victory, moving them within striking distance of Manchester City, who will travel to the Emirates Stadium next weekend. However, Bukayo Saka’s injury late on will worry Arteta.
Havertz has had a poor start since joining Arsenal from Chelsea in the summer, but he scored a second-half penalty to the delight of his team-mates and the fans at the Vitality Stadium.
The gunners already had a two-goal lead at this point, and Saka broke the lead with his fifth goal of the season, before Martin Odegaard scored from the penalty spot and Ben White’s header in stoppage time sealed the win.
Arteta was able to call up a number of players with injury doubts ahead of the trip to the south coast, with William Saliba, Declan Rice and Saka all available despite missing most of pre-match training.was included in the starting lineup.
Bournemouth are still yet to record a win under head coach Andoni Iraola, who is very much regarded as second best in the battle against childhood friend Arteta.
Arsenal held the lead from the start when Havertz saw Ilia Zabarny’s shot deflected into the corner.
Moments later, Saka duly gave them the lead by nodding into an empty net after Gabriel Jesus’ header hit the post and headed back into the path of the England winger.
Oleksandr Zinchenko found Neto for the visitors looking for their second goal, and Max Aarons scored from the penalty spot after bringing down Eddie Nketiah.
Saka was the first to go forward, but he passed the ball to his captain and Odegaard converted a penalty to increase the lead before half-time.
Bournemouth continued to cause their own problems, with Ryan Christie’s weak challenge on Odegaard leading to Michael Salisbury pointing out the penalty spot for the second time.
Saka recovered the ball again, but this time he handed the responsibility to Havertz, who had neither scored nor assisted in his first nine games for Arsenal.
His name rang out from the away area, and he calmly secured the win before his team-mates could even muzzle him, and the point was all but certain.
The only gloom of the afternoon for Arsenal was Saka hitting the deck in pain after a collision with Milos Kerkes.
He limped off for several minutes before being replaced by Fabio Vieira, with White scoring a late goal for Arsenal.
