With a 3-0 victory against Bournemouth in their penultimate home game on Saturday, Arsenal put further pressure on Manchester City and overcame another obstacle in their Premier League title chase.
Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick just before halftime gave Arsenal the lead. Leandro Trossard’s second goal on 70 minutes calmed fans inside the Emirates Stadium, and Declan Rice’s third goal deep into stoppage time completed the score.
With the victory, Arsenal now has 83 points from 36 games, while champion City has 79 from 34. Later on Saturday, Arsenal will host Wolverhampton Wanderers at home.
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After a protracted VAR investigation, Bournemouth’s penalty against Arsenal was confirmed, and they also had a score disallowed in the second half following another.
Rice added the cherry on top as Mikel Arteta’s club maintained their strong chance of winning a Premier League title for the first time in 20 years, even though Gabriel also had a goal disallowed for Arsenal.
Arsenal had the opportunity to apply more pressure because City was playing later, and they did it in a very routine manner, despite the fact that it took them a while to take the lead.
They dominated possession as anticipated, but Bournemouth, in 10th place, tormented the hosts for much of the first half by having 10 men behind the ball.
As Bournemouth pushed people in front of the ball, Trossard had two attempts blocked, and early in the Arsenal siege, captain Martin Odegaard was also denied.
William Saliba saved his team with a last-ditch tackle, but Gabriel’s error allowed Bournemouth danger player Dominic Solanke to score due to unavoidable nervousness.
Just before the interval, Arsenal took the lead due to a somewhat fortunate penalty.
After Kai Havertz was sent in behind Bournemouth’s defence, the German goalkeeper Mark Travers was beaten with his first touch, and when he went down, referee David Coote awarded a penalty.
After a protracted VAR review, the ruling was upheld even though Havertz seemed to have dragged his foot to make touch with Travers’s leg when it would have been easier for him to convert the opportunity.
Saka’s 16th league goal of the season was greeted with relief around the stadium as he calmly rolled the penalty past a motionless Travers.
With the help of errors from Arsenal, Bournemouth were more daring after the break.
Solanke had an opportunity, but David Raya easily stopped his angled attempt.
Then, with Rice setting up Trossard for a clean finish, Arsenal increased their lead.
Though there was still apprehension, a wild rush in the goalmouth saw the ball go in Arsenal’s net, even though Solanke was only found to have made slight touch in order to block Raya.
Ultimately, Arsenal emerged victorious and will now concentrate on defeating Everton and Manchester United in their last two games, hoping that City falters.