Arsenal beat Bournemouth 2-1 this Monday, at the Vitality Stadium. The victory secured the Gunners in the round of 16 of the FA Cup. The opponent of Mikel Arteta’s men will be Portsmouth, a team of the English third division. The match will be played in the Fratton Park Stadium on March 5.
The London side built their advantage still in the first half, which caused a little suffering in the final minutes.
At the 5th minute, the scoring was opened. Joseph Willock made a great individual play, went forward and found Gabriel Martinelli in the box. The Brazilian controlled the ball and passed it to Bukayo Saka, who struck a strong left-footed shot. No chances at all for goalkeeper Mark Travers.
Arsenal doubled their lead at the 26th minute. Saka appeared unmarked down the left and crossed it to the area. Edward Nketiah came to put the ball into the back of the net. VAR still checked the goal, once Brazilian Martinelli, who didn’t touch the ball, participated in the play and could be in a possible offside position. However, it was checked that Ake was giving him condition.
Despite playing at home, Bournemouth took a long time to finally wake up and play. It happened at the end of the first half, when keeper Emiliano Martinez, a spectator with privileges until then, had to work a little to keep Arsenal ahead on the scoring.
In the second half, it was Arsenal who kept controlling the game, even though they didn’t attack that much. And it seemed that the match would end up 2-0, but at 90+4 Bournemouth was able to succeed in one of their chances. After a cross from Simon Francis, Sam Surridge was there to put the ball past Arsenal’s keeper and into the net.
After the victory, Arsenal will focus once again on the Premier League, where they will visit Burnley for matchday 25. Bournemouth will welcome Aston Villa, also for the Premier League, on Saturday.