Double from the midfielder in the 3-2 final. Tomorrow Guardiola will host the first Chelsea team after Maresca and will have to win to get back to -4 and regain second place, now occupied by Aston Villa (3-1 against Nottingham)
Extended mission: accomplished. Arsenal beat Bournemouth 3-2 with a dominant second half like the one on Tuesday against Aston Villa, and thanks to Declan Rice’s first career double in the Premier League they went to sleep at +7 on Manchester City. Guardiola’s team seems to be the only rival left to the Gunners in the title race: tomorrow they host the first Chelsea after Maresca and will have to beat them to get back to -4 behind Arsenal, regain the second place that Aston Villa achieved by beating Nottingham Forest 3-1 (they are at -6) and keep alive the title race in which the Gunners are increasingly favourites. They also seemed to be the same in Bournemouth: Iraola’s team is definitely worth more than its 15th place in the table and the series of 11 games without a win, but when it was time to make a difference, Arsenal rose to a level that no one in England is capable of reaching at the moment. Not even the magic with which Kroupi reopened the game in the 76th minute after Rice seemed to have closed it shook the certainties of the top of the class.
the keys
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Rice is the hero of Arsenal’s fifth straight win. He was in doubt until the end, he made the difference in the second half showing the aspect in which he has improved the most since he called the Emirates Stadium home: the ability to score goals, to enter the offensive zone. It’s one of the reasons why he’s always in the conversation when we talk about the best midfielders in the world: since at Arsenal he has become more complete, more “box to box”, and knows how to make a difference even with attacking play without having lost the covering ability he had with West Ham. With this first brace in the Premier League coming at 296 appearances, Rice confirms himself as the Gunners’ best player in this first half of the season, Arsenal confirms that their best weapon is depth: in the 66th minute Arteta changed the trident by inserting Saka, Jesus and Trossard, after Rice’s momentary 3-1 he removed Odegaard to put in Merino. Very few teams in Europe have this quality from the bench, in England certainly no one has it. Now that the infirmary is emptying, Arteta has a squad of incredible quality, with at least two starters in each department: understanding how to exploit this abundance of talent and the different qualities of the individuals will be the Gunners manager’s most important personal challenge between now and the end of the season. The one that could make the difference in a title race that Arsenal, from the height of their 48 points, continues to have in hand. Bournemouth, on the other hand, must understand how to regain the victory they have been missing since 26 October, 11 games ago: they are going very slowly behind so the risk of being sucked into the relegation zone is low, but the 23 points collected in 20 games are really little for the value of the Cherries. The 75 million euros that Manchester City is about to shell out to sign Antoine Semenyo (nothing in the second half against Arsenal after a good first half) will be reinvested to help improve.
the others
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After starting the season with 19 games without a win, a new historic record for the Premier League, Wolverhampton broke their drought with a dominant 3-0 home win over West Ham, knocked out by goals in the first half from Arias, Hwang and Mané. The Wolves rise to 5 points, the Hammers remain third to last with 14 and reach 9 games without success: Nuno Espirito Santo is increasingly at risk of being sacked. In the other match of the day, an easy 2-0 home win over Burnley for Brighton, which rises to 28 with their first victory after 6 games of abstinence. Burnley remain second from bottom with 12 after an 11th consecutive winless match.
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