Arsenal made it hard for themselves in their victory over Bournemouth.
The Gunners conceded early on after a terrible mistake by Gabriel Magalhaes, but the Brazilian showed immense character to bounce back with the equaliser.
Declan Rice then scored a goal to put the Gunners 2-1 up, and that should’ve been enough to seal the game.
But Mikel Arteta made substitutions that handed the momentum back to Bournemouth.
Name your Arsenal Man of the Match vs Bournemouth but you can’t pick Declan Rice!
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal substitutions vs Bournemouth were a mistake
Arsenal weren’t great in the first half, even after they scored, but they still didn’t give away too many chances to Bournemouth.
The Gunners then got a lot better at the start of the second half and completely controlled the game. They deservedly went 2-1 up.
Just 12 minutes after Rice’s first goal, Arteta decided to take off his frontline of Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke, and replaced them with Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka.
As soon as that happened, the Cherries started to push higher up the pitch, and Arsenal struggled to get out because they had no outlet.
One substitute, Saka, did set up Rice’s third goal, which proved to be the winner in the end. However, bringing the winger on at the same time as Jesus and Trossard was a mistake.
Arteta got away with that error at the Vitality Stadium, but he cannot make the same mistake against Liverpool at the Emirates on Thursday.
Mikel Arteta should be more careful about substituting Viktor Gyokeres
Arteta has made it a habit of withdrawing Viktor Gyokeres before the final quarter of Arsenal’s games.
The former Sporting CP star has been taken off in the 66th, 77th and 71st minutes of the Gunners’ last three fixtures, and as soon as that happened, the momentum shifted in each game.
That is because teams become a lot braver in the press when Gyokeres is not on the pitch, as Arsenal’s other strikers just don’t have the ability to stretch the game as well as he does.
We are over halfway through the season, sum up Viktor Gyokeres’ transfer in one sentence.
For that reason, when the game is still in the balance, Arteta should stick with the Swede up top. Taking him off when the Gunners don’t have at least a two-goal cushion is a massive gamble.
The Arsenal manager has got away with it in recent games, but it will come back to bite them if they keep taking Gyokeres off the pitch.
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