Mikel Arteta told supporters to bring their dinner – but was left apologising to them because Arsenal ended up leaving far too much on the table.
There is now a considerable possibility that Manchester City will be back on top in 11 days’ time. That’s why the boos that followed this 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth were about more than the dismally tepid performance, of which Arteta himself said the team did some “very basic things extremely bad”.
Fans can now see opening up in front of them. In this match alone, they could see a team that couldn’t respond to what Andoni Iraola did, that didn’t have the urgency or gumption you would expect from prospective champions.
There’s a reasonable question over how much that booing helps a team who are still nine points clear – albeit with two games more played – but so much of the response stems from a team not helping themselves.
In this match, Arsenal played the ball back to goalkeeper David Raya 38 times, and he had their second-highest number of passes. You can surmise a lot about how they played from that alone, not least as regards how it signifies Bournemouth’s territorial domination.
While most of the aftermath to this will focus on Arsenal, and especially now the grand discussion about “bottling it”, there should be recognition for Iraola. He followed Pep Guardiola’s Carabao Cup display in doing a number on Arteta, while also following a tactical lead.
Arsenal found themselves penned in for so much of the game, with that all the more of a worry given how it was Raya in goal and not Kepa Arrizabalaga.
When the Spanish international tried to play it long, then, Viktor Gyokeres couldn’t even get close to it. Marcos Senesi and James Hill easily dealt with almost everything coming their way.
The same couldn’t be said of Arsenal’s previously cast-iron backline. There were so many warnings of Alex Scott’s superbly taken goal, especially with little slips around their area.
The goal itself, brilliantly taken after a superb Evanilson touch, was itself only a follow-on from Bournemouth’s superiority.
It said so much that it was Arsenal that needed the goal – even though a draw would still have afforded them an advantage around next week’s City showdown – but it was Bournemouth that looked like getting it.
And it is within that, and the susceptibility of the defence, that there are greater concerns for Arsenal.
Arteta told the players and media it was “a punch in the face” and it is their first slip in five in the league, but it did indicate something more.
In trying to typically manage the emotions around a stadium that by that point felt like a morgue, Arteta came out with a lot of familiar lines.
“Today we have to suffer. It’s painful. It’s a terrible feeling. Tomorrow is a different day. And if somebody would have said to me in August, we are in this position right now in April, I’m sure we would all take it.”
That’s usually the right way to respond to such deflation because it’s an attempt to reframe it but the problem comes when you keep having to say it. There are only so many times you can spin it.
Arsenal’s many critics would say he’s had to get well used to it.
The much more relevant issue now, however, it’s not just psychological. It’s tactical and technical, and one where Arteta has to be the “first one” to “stand up” and “embrace this challenge”.
Because, from that, he also said a few other things. “We’re going to have different contexts from here to June. And we need to be able to adapt and resolve all of them if we want to achieve what we want to achieve.”
And then: “Because game on, you’re going to require now a big speed, a lot of fight and very clear. How are we going to approach that?
“There’s no grey areas. We are in, we are out. And we need to be very, very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we’ve done today, especially when the game wasn’t going our way.”
The great question, however, is whether the team can actually do any of that in sufficient time; whether they actually can “adapt”. They couldn’t here While Bournemouth did a number on Arsenal, that approach came from a full awareness of how Arsenal play.
A team built for containment then couldn’t adapt to a game that required opening out; that required more.
It has been said on these pages many times before but Arsenal are now a long way from the “spin drier” that used to be ideal over 2022 to 2024. They don’t take the game to opposition in the same way and then spin them around.
And while there might be a logic in playing for clean sheets and set pieces given the way that the modern game has developed, what happens when you stop keeping clean sheets and don’t find set pieces as effective.
It was a touch desperate with the way the faint hope in the stadium palpably grew with every corner won. Their only goal was a Gyokeres penalty, with Arsenal’s first-half equaliser also their first shot on target.
Set-pieces are obviously a valuable weapon but there has to be more to champions than that.
And the absolute key now is that Arsenal need more than that.
An extra challenge they’ve now got is how the very psychology of the title race is intertwined with their approach.
Arsenal need to re-assert themselves. They need to display a new authority. They need to dominate a game again.
Can they actually do that? Are they now too conditioned by these constraints?
So much of their play looks too far down the pitch, in a massive contrast to 2022-23.
There is too often a gap between their base and their actual creative plays, who seem to be feeding off an ever-thinning service. The same applies to Gyokeres, even he should offer more himself.
Martin Zubimendi looks exhausted. Poor, forlorn Declan Rice is now starting to carry that Harry Kane caricature, as if he is destined to toil in failure, shaking his head at it all.
So much of this comes from the very emphasis of the team, and where and how they play most of their football.
It is all so restrained when they are crying out for release.
The positive is that most of their senior players are now coming back from this week. That might change the emphasis.
The negative is that the next game is away to Manchester City, in a match with so many narrative strands. That game looks like it will demand a certain approach.
It may well serve as a referendum on Arsenal’s entire approach, as well as their fate in this title race.
They need to serve up something different.
