{"id":2087,"date":"2026-04-12T06:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T06:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2026-04-12T06:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T06:51:34","slug":"hargreaves-shocked-by-remarkable-stat-as-bournemouth-suffocate-prem-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2087","title":{"rendered":"Hargreaves shocked by &#8216;remarkable&#8217; stat as Bournemouth &#8216;suffocate&#8217; Prem leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Owen Hargreaves has questioned both Arsenal\u2019s tactics and their willingness to fight after the damaging 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s season is threatening to unravel, as they lost the League Cup final to Manchester City before being dumped out of the FA Cup by Southampton in a shock quarter-final twist. The Gunners beat Sporting CP 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final in midweek, only to drop more points in the Premier League title race on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Eli Kroupi Jr gave the visitors the lead in the 17th minute when he volleyed home at the back post after good work from Ryan Christie and Adrien Truffert.<\/p>\n<p>Viktor Gyokeres levelled from the penalty spot in the 35th minute after a Gabriel shot hit Christie\u2019s arm in the box.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Arsenal<\/strong> crowd got increasingly agitated in the second half as they continued to lose possession after playing the ball around the back.<\/p>\n<p>This led to Alex Scott scoring the winner in the 74th minute. After Bournemouth won back possession, Scott ran onto Evanilson\u2019s flick to brilliantly send David Raya the wrong way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Arsenal enter crisis mode as Arteta failings exposed again on \u2018big day\u2019 for Bottlepocalypse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former England midfielder Hargreaves was asked on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>TNT Sports<\/em><\/a>  if the pressure of delivering the title is affecting the Arsenal players. He replied:\u00a0\u201cFirst of all, you\u2019ve got to give Bournemouth credit. They were class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir press today suffocated Arsenal, they couldn\u2019t play. The best team in the Premier League in every capacity just couldn\u2019t play, they couldn\u2019t create anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut pressure is a real thing. I do think they (Arsenal) started the game a little bit tired, but every Bournemouth player played with energy. They deserved to win today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"04742eb90cefa12a5e3ab9bae92c2b93\" image-id=\"neim1S8J0COH\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Analysing Scott\u2019s winner, Hargreaves expressed his concern about Arsenal losing three duels in the build-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe spoke about second balls and duels,\u201d he added. \u201cOn that goal, they lost three second balls in one clip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always speak about second balls because they decide games. Brilliant run from Alex Scott.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you can press like that, force mistakes, you win second balls and it builds confidence. It creates stress for the other team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pundit was left stunned by the fact Arsenal passed back to Raya 38 times throughout the match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a modern trend and I\u2019m not a big fan of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ball goes back to the goalkeeper all the time. For a team that presses as good as Bournemouth, all you\u2019re doing is inviting pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid Raya received 38 back passes today. 38! And this is one of the best pressing teams in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is quite a remarkable stat. Raya played the second-most passes in the Arsenal team today, only Declan Rice played one more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s brilliant with his feet by the way, but why would you encourage that? The crowd gets nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The defeat leaves Arsenal nine points ahead of City, though that lead could evaporate fast. City have two games in hand, while the two sides will play each other next weekend in a titanic clash at the Etihad.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Max Dowman for England? \u00a3100m Arsenal duo offer reality check over latest prodigy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        '\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Owen Hargreaves has questioned both Arsenal\u2019s tactics and their willingness to fight after the damaging<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}