Arsenal 3 Bournemouth 0: Gunners go four

ARSENAL survived second-half scares to keep their title bid right on track.

Although the Gunners totally dominated the first 45 minutes, they had only Bukayo Saka’s penalty to show for it.

Bournemouth were better after the break yet the game seemed over when Leandro Trossard grabbed a second.

But the Cherries thought they had pulled one back immediately through Antoine Semenyo, only for VAR Peter Bankes to back referee David Coote’s original decision to blow for a foul against Dominic Solanke.

Declan Rice put the seal on victory with a stoppage-time third and overall the visitors could have no complaints about their defeat.

Goalkeeper Mark Travers kept Bournemouth in the game in the opening 45 minutes with a string of saves from Kai Havertz, William Saliba, Saka and Thomas Partey.

When Travers was beaten by a Takehiro Tomiyasu header from a corner, his defence smuggled the ball off the line.

Declan Rice had just missed the best chance of the lot when Arsenal finally made the breakthrough.

Martin Odegaard’s fine through ball found Havertz and although the German was looking for contact, there was no denying that Travers tripped him.

Saka stroked the ball home with ease.

After Travers denied Saka and Havertz soon after the break, Solanke forced Raya into his first save.

And although Bournemouth looked more dangerous, they fell further behind when Rice teed up Trossard.

Then came the biggest moment of controversy.

Solanke seemed to do little wrong before Raya got a weak punch on Tomiyasu’s skied clearance.

Ryan Christie’s initial shot came back off the crossbar and Semenyo forced home the rebound via a deflection.

After a long review, Bankes backed on-field colleague Coote.

It was arguably Bankes’ second bad call after the day, after Christie had got away with a nasty challenge on Saka early in the game.

It was enough to take a chunk out of the winger’s leg but not to persuade the VAR to ask Coote to take a closer look.

Bournemouth will feel aggrieved they did not have the chance to test Arsenal’s nerve late on, as Spurs the previous weekend.

Gabriel had a good disallowed for offside but Rice fired home from a narrow angle deep into stoppage time.

In the end the Gunners well deserved their victory as they moved four points clear of Manchester City ahead of the reigning champions teatime kick-off.