First Three Points Claimed in the Eleventh Month

It had been written that we won't go all through November without a win and that was confirmed on Sunday when we narrowly escaped another draw. Liverpool, Sporting CP, and Wolverhampton all gave us a tough time making sure we recorded no eleventh month victory prior to our visit to the Vitality Stadium after a stressful international break.

Unai Emery employed a three-man defence consisting Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding, giving Hector Bellerin and Sead Kolasinac the privilege to be more attack-minded. Mesut Ozil dropped to the bench while Alexandre Lacazette could not pair Auba as he was left out due to a groin problem.

Arsenal extended their run to seventeen straight games without defeat as they recorded a 2-1 win over a well-focused Bournemouth, courtesy an own goal and a strike from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

As expected, Eddie Rowe's side gave us no breathing space in the early periods of the game and would have gone ahead if not for the fact that David Brook's goal was correctly ruled offside. Lucas Torreira was close with a shot against the woodwork having snatched a careless pass but we never knew that we were going to get a nice present from our generous hosts.

The first difference in scoreline came in the 30th minute. Sead Kolasinac had raced down the left before sending a cross to Aubameyang in the box and guess what? The Gabonese star did not have to worry much after the ball went past him for there was an assistant Auba. Lemar in a bid to make a clearance sent the ball past his own goalkeeper and we were up. What a goal!!!!!

Are we ever going to be liberated from this first half no-lead nemesis that has clung on to us all through this season? Just when we thought we would be in front at halftime, the ugly monster showed up its head once again and we conceded just moments to the break. It was Josh King who grabbed the equaliser.

As in many games this season, the job was done in the second half. Auba had earlier shot aimlessly above the crossbar from a Henrikh Mkhitaryan pass from the centre but went on to settle his debt in the 67th minute of the match. 

Alex Iwobi drove past the Bournemouth defence to aid Kolasinac's low cross which was well converted by our highest goal scorer for the season so far - Aubameyang. That made it his 10th goal of the 2018/19 season. The 29-year-old has now scored 14 goals in his 16 Premier League games played on Sunday. Amazing!

Mkhitaryan failed to score after Auba set him up on goal. We were so fortunate to get all three points. Thanks to Lemar who gave us a first half lead but was not as sharp to grab a late equaliser for his side. Not also forgetting to appreciate the crossbar which denied him. The last-minute freekick to the hosts posed no threat, 2-1 was the final score, three points claimed and 5th position maintained.

Arsenal will be heading to Ukraine for their next game which will be against Vorskla Poltava in the Europa League on Thursday before welcoming bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur to the Emirates Stadium for the North-London derby three days later.