Another game week has come to an end for Arsenal and we were once again victorious. We have preserved our 100% winning start of the season with a domineering performance against Bournemouth.
We put up a good showing against the newly promoted side, notching two early goals through Odegard and then another early second half goal that was sublimely taken by William Saliba to give us a 3-0 victory away from home.
It was yet another impressive performance by the team that is slowly growing into their skin as they play their hearts out on the pitch. It was a really lovely spectacle and one that I hope we continue to replicate as the season goes on.
We started in the same strong fashion that has marked our games this season. Odegard's first goal was thanks to some hard work from Gabriel Jesus that created space through a crisp reverse pass for Martinelli's shot to be parried and then the rebound was tapped in by Odegard.
A couple of minutes later, it was Ben White bombing forward from Rightback to square a pass to Gabriel Jesus who controlled it and right before he was about to pull the trigger, Odegard snatched the opportunity to rifle it into the top corner.
That 2-0 lead in the early stages underlined our dominance in the match as we controlled possession and gave the Cherries no chance in the game. For most of the first half, they were just chasing the match and were basically in damage control mode.
The second half started a bit more frantically with the home team being more impetuous as they switched from a back 5 to a back four and had more bodies in attack. They had a couple of chances half chances but nothing that rattled the boys.
After handling the initial pressure, we settled into the game and this time it was Saliba on the end of a pass from Chaka that gave us the third goal. After that goal, the home side once again switched to damage control as we continued to press for more goals.
Gabriel Jesus had a goal ruled off by a very tight offside, Martinelli had his shot parried numerous times. Nketiah also had a shot parried. Saka was also on the end of an attack that didn't rattle that net for the fourth.
At the end of the day, we ended with a well deserved 3-0 victory away from home.
Looking good
Most of the haters have looked at our performance and tried to downplay them as being inconsequential since they're against teams that "we're expected to win". However, anybody with a braincell knows that you're not expected to win any match, you either win or don't. Ask Spurs that required a smash and grab to win against Wolves if there are any "easy games" in the Premier league.
I guess what has people rattled the most is the ease in which we have been dispatching these teams. We make it look so easy, people start to assume that somehow they're all relagation-threatened teams.
However, when you consider the fact that we kept a clean sheet against a very impressive Palace team that gave Liverpool a run for their money, you'll see that there's a lot of work going on at Arsenal.
Anyway, we look like a well drilled team and there's a general good feeling about the team. We start strongly and look to put the game to bed in the first half.
There's still room for improvement and one part of our game that I think we can improve is our control in the second half when fatigue starts to creep in. I know it's not possible to keep the same intensity throughout the game but we need to find a way to tone down the intensity in the second half to ensure we have more control of the game.
We are looking good this season and confidence is running high. We are crossing off away games off the fixture list; something that was our Achilles heel last season. We just need to stay grounded and keep winning the games we ae 'expected to win" while the haters continue waiting for our downfall.
The next game will be a challenging North London derby against recently promoted Fulham. It will be folly to underestimate our opponents who were very close to claiming Liverpool's scalp on the first day of the season.
I'm sure Arteta will be grilling the boys about how important the next game is and how we must be at absolutely 100% to get anything from the match. Until we meet again, up the Arsenal.
