Midfielder’s second-half brace helps Gunners win five-goal thriller at Vitality Stadium<\/p>\n
Declan Rice marked his return from injury with a brace as Arsenal<\/a> extended their lead at the Premier League summit to six points following a dramatic 3-2 win over AFC Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rice, who missed the Gunners\u2019 4-1 thrashing of Aston Villa<\/a> on Tuesday, struck twice in the space of 17 second-half minutes, but Arsenal were forced to navigate a nervy finish at Vitality Stadium.<\/p>\n After seemingly putting the result beyond doubt, a stunning strike from Junior Kroupi<\/a> reduced the deficit, though it proved to be just a consolation.<\/p>\n Bournemouth had got themselves ahead early on when Gabriel Magalhaes<\/a>‘ poor pass was punished by Evanilson<\/a>, before the defender made up for his mistake by levelling in the 16th minute.<\/p>\n While Arsenal stretched their lead at the top, they could see it reduced to four points if Manchester City<\/a> beat Chelsea<\/a> on Sunday. Bournemouth, meanwhile, saw their winless league run extend to 11 matches, and stay down in 15th.<\/p>\n How the match unfolded<\/p>\n Bournemouth were gifted the lead in the 10th minute when Gabriel\u2019s misplaced first-time pass was cut out by Evanilson, who took a touch before rolling the ball beyond David Raya<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Gabriel quickly atoned for his error when he crashed his shot into the net after Gabriel Martinelli<\/a>\u2019s blocked attempt fell kindly into the Brazilian\u2019s path inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n David Brooks<\/a> then flashed a shot just wide in the 53rd minute, with that miss punished when Rice picked out the bottom corner with a curling finish after good work from Viktor Gyokeres<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rice was on hand again to round off another free-flowing Arsenal move, this time stroking the ball home after Bukayo Saka<\/a>\u2019s dazzling run from the right was rewarded 19 minutes from time.<\/p>\n But the Cherries threatened a dramatic ending on the South Coast when Kroupi sent a sensational 76th-minute effort into the bottom corner, but Arsenal held on.<\/p>\n Cherries’ wait for a win continues<\/p>\n Despite seeing their winless run in the top flight continue, Andoni Iraola will have plenty of positives to take from Bournemouth\u2019s last two displays, even more so against Arsenal.<\/p>\n After taking the lead through Evanilson, Bournemouth did not look to settle on their advantage as Justin Kluivert<\/a>\u2019s shot from distance narrowly missed the mark, and though Gabriel\u2019s equaliser knocked the wind out of their sails, they steadied the ship almost instantly.<\/p>\n Marcus Tavernier<\/a> got himself into some promising positions, first glancing James Hill<\/a>\u2019s teasing cross wide of the right-hand post before flicking a Kluivert delivery over Raya\u2019s crossbar.<\/p>\n Bournemouth\u2019s intensity in their press forced Arsenal into making mistakes when in possession, and though they had their chances, they were hit with a crushing blow when Rice rifled the ball home from Martin Odegaard<\/a>\u2019s layoff early in the second half.<\/p>\n But even with Rice scoring his second, Bournemouth continued to push and were rewarded when Kroupi brilliantly finished, but it proved to be too little, too late for the hosts.<\/p>\n Bournemouth\u2019s next Premier League match sees them take on Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> at home next Wednesday.<\/p>\n Rice returns with a bang<\/p>\n Mikel Arteta will have been buoyed by the return of Rice to his midfield after he missed their victory over Villa in midweek with a knee injury, though his presence did not improve Arsenal in the first half as they unusually struggled to maintain possession.<\/p>\n So often crisp and calm with their passing, Gabriel\u2019s blunder saw Evanilson pounce before a loose header from Martin Zubimendi<\/a> handed Kluivert the opportunity to strike at goal soon after, with the Gunners flustered by the Cherries\u2019 press.<\/p>\n But Rice did make an impact in the final third with two brilliant finishes to put Arsenal two goals in front, with his second of the match set up by substitute Saka, who was introduced alongside Gabriel Jesus<\/a> and Leandro Trossard<\/a> to further highlight Arsenal\u2019s quality in reserve.<\/p>\n Kroupi\u2019s late stunner got Bournemouth\u2019s tails up, but Arsenal\u2019s defenders stood firm as Gabriel, Piero Hincapie<\/a>, William Saliba<\/a> and Jurrien Timber<\/a> repelled a wave of Cherries attacks.<\/p>\n Arsenal will have a slightly longer rest compared to their title rivals, with their next league match against reigning champions Liverpool<\/a> at Emirates Stadium on 8 January.<\/p>\n Club reports<\/p>\n Bournemouth report<\/a> | Arsenal report<\/a><\/p>\n What the managers said<\/p>\n Andoni Iraola: <\/strong>“It is a feeling we’ve had a lot lately. We do a lot of good things but go away with one point or no points. Today we conceded three goals against Arsenal but they have not had a lot of chances. Overall it was quite a level game, we were better in the first half but Arsenal had the better of the second half.<\/p>\n “It is very difficult to score two against Arsenal but to finish without a point is frustrating. We have to be very good to get just one point. Arsenal found a way to win it and that is costing us a lot.”<\/p>\n Mikel Arteta: <\/strong>“I’m very happy we knew the difficulty of the match, they’re a team that constantly threaten you. They are so good, made it even harder for ourselves conceding the first goal but I love the character of the team.<\/p>\n “I love the character of Gabriel, the way he overcame that situation, it’s just unbelievable. It says a lot about how much we’ve grown. The team found a way to beat them and it’s a massive win.”<\/p>\n Next PL fixturesKey facts<\/p>\n Arsenal have won 15 of their 20 Premier League games this season, only in 2022\/23 and 1932\/33 (both W16 D2 L2) have they won more of their first 20 matches in a league season.<\/p>\n Bournemouth have failed to win eight Premier League games this season when scoring 2+ goals (D5 L3), twice as many as any other side in the competition.<\/p>\n Rice scored his first ever brace in the Premier League (his 296th appearance) and his second for Arsenal in all competitions, after his two direct free kicks against Real Madrid in April 2025.<\/p>\n Magalhaes became just the second defender to score 20 Premier League goals for Arsenal after Laurent Koscielny (22).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midfielder’s second-half brace helps Gunners win five-goal thriller at Vitality Stadium Declan Rice marked his return from injury…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":490627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[62,4063,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-490626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-text","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115834116296037095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}