Winners & losers as Aubameyang and Lerma blunder seal Arsenal victory at Bournemouth

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Arsenal extend their unbeaten run with a well earned 1-2 victory over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday.

Bournemouth were the better side for significant periods of this game, especially in the first 30 minutes, when they enjoyed ample attacking opportunities.

Against the run of play, Arsenal were provided a gift from a horribly misjudged clearance from Jefferson Lerma which arrowed straight past Asmir Begovic into his own goal.

The Cherries equalised just before the break via Joshua King’s curling effort to make things more interesting in the second half. Aubameyang clinched the winner in Arsenal’s notoriously favoured second half to grab all the points.

Here are three winners and three losers from Sunday’s game on the south coast.

Winners

Aubameyang hits double figures

So many shots were sliced, hoofed and skied on Sunday afternoon that any rugby or indeed NFL scouts watching might be considering making a few enquiries after this one. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Lucas Torreira and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang all hitting shots towards the rafters.

They finally found their shooting boots as the match wore on and Aubameyang managed to reach a milestone this afternoon. His second-half winner was the Gunners 21st in a second half and Aubameyang’s eight in the Premier League and his 10th across all competitions.

Sead Kolasinac

The 25-year-old Bosnian had a lot of joy down Arsenal’s left flank this afternoon. The left-back was playing as part of a back five today and found himself in advanced positions all afternoon.

He had a hand in both of Arsenal’s goal, although Jefferson Lerma’s conversion was the more spectacular a more appropriate verb than assist needs to be settled upon for these scenarios.

It was Kolasinac’s cross that also handed the Gunners their winner on the south coast. The Bosnia and Herzegovnia international cut inside and delivered a crisp low cross which was tapped home by Aubameyang at close range.

 

Everton

The Toffees can breath a sigh of relief this weekend, as Manchester United’s goalless draw against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth’s failure to win against Arsenal keeps them in sixth place with 22 points.

Everton haven’t finished higher than seventh place for the last four seasons and will be hoping to make a renewed effort to break into European qualification places this season.

The highest the Toffees have finished in the premier League was when they finished fourth at the end of the 2004/05 season under David Moyes.

Losers

Jefferson Lerma

The 24-year-old midfielder finished off a spectacular own goal, that he would have been delighted with at the other end of the pitch, during the first half.

The Columbian had played excellently up until that point. He’d distributed the ball well and made some crucial challenges in the middle of the park. But his tenacity to get to the ball first is what punished him here, as his lunging intervention ricochet from his right foot, zinging past a stunned and helpless Begovic.

Since being promoted to the Premier League ahead of the 2015-16 season, only Swansea (12) have scored more own goals in the competition than Bournemouth (7).

Lerma almost made amends for his blunder near the end of the match when his shot from outside the box struck the post, but there was no redemption for the midfielder on Sunday.

David Brooks

Brooks was controversially denied Bournemouth’s opener in the early stages when he took advantage of some sloppy Arsenal defending to slot home a beautiful finish. It didn’t count, however, as it was ruled offside.

The 21-year-old was not a complete loser, however, as he got his reward just before the break when his exquisitely weighted pass was finished off with style by Joshua King from a tight angle.

Brooks was a bright spark in the Cherries’ side all afternoon, linking up well with team mates and always looking to get nothe front foot. The only black mark against him is that he needs to stay on his feet more, which should become easier as the youngster fills out.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Manchester United and Arsenal fans could have a heated discussion about who got the worst deal when Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sanchez swapped clubs last season.

The Armenian international couldn’t find some of his players with a sat nav this afternoon and his awareness of where the goalmouth was was equally lacking. If he wasn’t spooning shots over the crossbar he was slicing them well wide.

To be fair to the 29-year-old he received little help from Hector Bellerin on the right flank this afternoon. The Spaniard was constantly being caught out of position and there seemed to be little or no understanding between the pair when they were attempting to craft opportunities on the wing.

 

 

 

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