Arsenal conspiracies powerless against mistake-ridden reality in defeat to Bournemouth

William Saliba made a mistake. Jakub Kiwior made a mistake. Arsenal lost. Sometimes football is just that simple.

It was really daft from Saliba. Sent off for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity that definitely isn’t one if he stays on his feet and doesn’t tug Evanilson to the ground. No one is betting on Evanilson beating Saliba in a battle of speed and strength from the halfway line. A split-second decision maybe, but a daft one all the same.

It was Leandro Trossard’s fluffed pass that put Saliba in trouble with the referee and PGMOL in trouble with Arsenal fans.

Merseyside-based Robert Jones of the Wirral Referees’ Association showing Saliba a red card that means he misses Arsenal’s game against Liverpool, you say? How very convenient. Him initially showing Saliba a yellow card rendered inconsequential in the conspiratorial minds of Gooners by VAR Jarred Gillett being An Actual Liverpool Fan whom Howard Webb furiously texted his directions to give Manchester City a leg-up in the title race to from his position in the Bournemouth stand.

We understand the fans’ frustration having seen their team reduced to ten men three times in the opening eight games of the season, particularly having witnessed a number of instances of other players not being punished for delaying the restart before and after Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were sent off for that very offence.

And their bias will presumably see them among those in what we would guess is the smaller but not insignificant group of people that believe Saliba was unfortunate here. But really, they should be blaming their own players for defeat here.

Without Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard Arsenal don’t look like Arsenal. It was obvious before the sending off that if they were going to win here – and that wasn’t clear with the game fairly even up to that point – it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Trossard was barely involved aside from his mistake, while Raheem Sterling – who was sacrificed when they went down to ten – was a pale imitation of Saka, a reality clarified in one moment when Sterling did well to cut inside on his left foot but chose to chop back when the man he replaced would have curled an effort towards, and probably into, the far corner.

Mikel Merino on his full debut was fine but functional, and actually a lot better after the sending off when doing the dogsbody work than when tasked with opening the opposition up, as Odegaard does time and again from that position.

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One excellent bit of play from the new signing saw him take a great first touch from a misplaced Kepa Arrizabalaga pass and play a perfectly weighted ball for Gabriel Martinelli to run onto. The substitute should have given Kepa no chance but curled his effort too close to the goalkeeper. A huge moment seconds before Bournemouth took the lead.

Jakub Kiwior came on for Sterling to shore up the defence but was bossed by whichever of Bournemouth’s forwards chose to run at him and made the mistake that led to Bournemouth’s penalty, playing a weak backpass that allowed Evanilson to tumble over David Raya, who made two or three errors himself that could and perhaps should have been punished.

Even the Bournemouth opener, a wonderfully worked corner routine that saw Justin Kluivert deftly flick a driven ball to the front post on for Ryan Christie to drive in from the edge of the area, felt as though it was rooted in Arsenal carelessness.

While all the Bournemouth players were in motion, whether involved in the goal or not, the Gunners players were strangely inactive when they normally take such delight in defending. You’ve got to wonder just how key Saliba is in the organisation from set pieces and whether Nicolas Jover could learn a thing or two from his counterpart on the Bournemouth bench.

Saliba’s absence will be a real worry ahead of the Liverpool game, in which Mikel Arteta’s side can’t afford to be as sloppy and lethargic as they were here, when it wasn’t the referee, VAR or a wider conspiracy that cost them but their own players. And while the return of Odegaard and Saka will of course provide a big boost, it wasn’t their backups that really screwed the pooch here but the typically reliable regulars.