Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice believes the team let their standards slip in their 2-0 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday.
The defeat to the cherries was the first loss Arsenal had this season. After a brilliant start to the season with wins over Spurs, Aston Villa and Paris Saint-Germain, the Gunners now have to regroup for the upcoming fixtures.
Goals from Justin Kluivert and Ryan Christie were enough to beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Vitality Stadium. The game was marred in controversy after William Saliba was sent off for a last man challenge on Evanilson.
Referee Robert Jones’ initial decision was a yellow card, but VAR instructed him to take a second look after which he produced a red card for the French defender.
Declan Rice criticizes team performance after Bournemouth slip
The Gunners have a legitimate claim that the result could have been different if both teams had 11 men, but the game itself was a lot different.
Arsenal failed to have a shot on target in the first half even with 11 men on the pitch. Rice thinks the red card changed the approach, but the team could have done much better:
“I could say a million things,” he said. “But I think I’m proud of the players to be honest. I think the way we reacted again, going down to 10 men was not ideal, we knew that as a group of players, we’ve just said in there [the dressing room], that’s three times in eight games that we’ve let our standards slip and if you want to compete at the top you cannot let that happen.
“But again, the reaction we showed to that and the belief, even on the pitch at half-time, that we could go and win the game and the chances that we had. I’m proud of these boys and I’m proud of the mentality that these boys and the club show.”
Arsenal now find themselves four points behind league leaders Liverpool ahead of their Premier League clash next weekend.
Bournemouth v Arsenal Premier League 19/10/2024. Declan Rice 41 of Arsenal blocks a shot at goal by Evanilson 9 of AFC Bournemouth during the Premier League match between Bournemouth and Arsenal at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, England on 19 October 2024. Bournemouth Vitality Stadium Dorset England Editorial use only DataCo restrictions apply See www.football-dataco.com , Copyright: xGrahamxHuntx PSI-20632-0039
Arsenal midfielder is optimistic for upcoming games
The gunners have a champions league game against Shakhtar on Tuesday before they face Liverpool on the weekend. Rice believes the loss would be hard to bounce back from, but there are important games to win:
“We’ll keep pushing, we’ll keep fighting on, I think that’s the most important thing. The fans were amazing. It’s so disappointing because we wanted to stay unbeaten, we wanted to win the game, but this is football and it’s a real rollercoaster, it was never going to be perfect, there’s ups and downs but we need to stick together because there’s another six or seven games coming up this month so plenty of positives to look forward to.”
Bournemouth on the other hand, will be boosted by their win over the Gunners. Andoni Iraola was delighted with how the Cherries’ game plan worked on Saturday.
