BY OUR MAN AT THE VITALITY
MIKEL ARTETA’S title-chasers survived a coastal cocktail of errors and screamers to escape the Vitality Stadium with their heads—and their lead—intact.
On a freezing night where the North Sea wind whipped through the open corners of Bournemouth’s compact home, it was Declan Rice who provided the heat.
The England talisman bagged a rare brace to ensure the Gunners didn’t slip up on the South Coast banana skin that has claimed so many big scalps.
The Vitality is never a place for the faint-hearted, and the 11,000 packed into the league’s smallest ground were baying for blood when Gabriel gifted the hosts an opener.
The Brazilian defender played a pass so blind he might as well have been wearing a donkey’s tail, allowing Evanilson to stroll in and slot past a stranded David Raya.
But the “Vitality Vibe” works both ways.
The proximity of the fans to the pitch seemed to wake Gabriel from his slumber just six minutes later, as he lashed home an equaliser from close range to silence the home faithful.
After the break, the stadium became the Rice Show.
First, he ghosted into the area to fire home from twenty yards, then he made it 3-1 by finishing a slick Bukayo Saka cutback.
Andoni Iraola’s men refused to lie down in their seaside fortress.
Sub Junior Kroupi nearly brought the roof down with a 25-yard thunderbolt that flew into the top corner, setting up a grandstand finish.
The Cherries threw everything—including the kitchen sink and keeper Petrovic—at the Arsenal goal in stoppage time, but Arteta’s men battened down the hatches.
Arsenal leave the South Coast six points clear, proved they can handle the heat of the Vitality, and headed back to London with the ultimate seaside souvenir: three points.
