Bournemouth 0-4 Arsenal: The Debrief

Arsenal remain unbeaten after a big win on the South Coast

The results this weekend went Arsenal’s way, Manchester City lost, Manchester United lost, Brighton lost (in the most Unai Emery big win possible), and Liverpool went down to 9 men and lost in a heartbreaking way (ignoring Spurs).

These results have propelled Arsenal up the table to a tie for second place, just a point behind Manchester City and it feels a lot better than it did last weekend after the disappointing draw in the derby.

It was also positive that the players who were at risk of missing the match with injury were able to feature (even if I would have liked to see Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus come off at the same time as Zinchnko and Nketiah, with the game essentially over). It is going to be a big week to make sure the team is as healthy as possible for the visit of Manchester City on the other side of the Champions League trip to France.

Bournemouth 0-4 Arsenal: The Graphics

Bournemouth 0-4 Arsenal: The Debrief

58% - Arsenal’s possession in this match,

47.8% - Arsenal’s Field Tilt, the lowest total this season

54 - Final third entries allowed, the most Arsenal have allowed this season

28 - Touches in the box allowed, tied for the most allowed this season (most with 11 men)

15 - Sequences for Bournemouth with 7 or more passes, the most Arsenal have allowed this season. Arsenal had 19 in this match.

Arsenal played a different style in this match. Bournemouth were aggressive with their press, especially in the first 50-60 minutes of this match. They caused problems for Arsenal, they had 6 high starts and made it a real chore to progress the ball through the middle of the field.

Arsenal’s total final third entries is by far the lowest they have had this season. The list of players making final third entry passes was really weird:

4 - Gabriel Jesus

2 - Ben White

2 - Kai Havertz

2 - William Saliba

2 - Gabriel

and the really surprising part

1 - Oleksandr Zinchenko

1 - Declan Rice

0 - Martin Odegaard

Bournemouth looked to really limit the access of the main midfielders in this match and it did work to make the attack look out of sorts. Thankfully in this match the worry about the efficiency of the attack was able to be delayed for a little bit longer.

54 - Deep touches for Arsenal, Arsena’s third-highest total this season

36 - Touches in the box for Arsenal

15 - Shots

4 - Goals

3.7 - Expected Goals

The numbers are a bit inflated due to penalties, that is 5 now for Arsenal this season which feels weird to see getting called for them. But it was still a better final-third performance for the team.

The overall ability to convert their few final third touches into dangerous opportunities was something that has been lacking this season and it was really nice to see that turn.

Odegaard has a bounce-back

56 - Pass Attempts, with 49 completed for 87.5% and 111.5% Pass Efficiency

4 - Progressive Passes, led Arsenal

3 - Box Entry Passes, led Arsenal

8 - Deep Completions (not Cross), led Arsenal

3 - Key Passes, including 2 big chances created (because people have been worried about that), led Arsenal

0.68 - xA, led Arsenal

1 - Shot, penalty, cooly converted

1 - Dribbles Completed

2 - Times Fouled

5 - Progressive Carries

7 - Progressive Passes Received

6 - Touches in the box

2 - Dispossessed

4 - Miscontrol

1 - Tackles

1 - Blocked Passes

4 - Ball Recoveries

0.85 - Goal Probability Added, led Arsenal

After a very uncharacteristically sloppy game against Spurs, Odegaard was back to his best. He played more in the final third this match, not having nearly as much impact on buildup (which could be a reason why it looked a bit poor) but having a much larger impact in creating danger in the final third. He looked like he was hunting his own shot less here and instead looking for his teammates. With his shooting ability you don’t mind when he has some selfishness but it needs to be balanced, this was a nice move back towards that.

Gabriel Jesus facilitates

41 - Pass Attempts with 32 completed and 100.0% Pass Efficiency

4 - Final 3rd Entry Passes

3 - Box Entry Passes

6 - Deep Completions

2 - Key Passes

0.16 - xA

2 - Shots

0.13 - xG

3 - Dribbles Completed

4 - Progressive Carries

8 - Progressive Passes Received

7 - Touches in the box

4 - Dispossessed

2 - Miscontrol

1 - Tackles

1 - Interceptions

6 - Ball Recoveries

I know I am not alone in not loving seeing him on the wing but I have to admit that his help in buildup was especially helpful today. He was the one that everything Arsenal seemed to do positive in this match flowed through. I think that it is pretty clear that he is still the largest impact on the team.

Bonus Stat:

1 - Goal by Kai Havertz, ending all the 00 Kai jokes for rival fans. Hopefully, this gives him some confidence to unlock the final third play.