Rice double gives Gunners six clears

Arsenal took a six-point lead in the top of the Premier League as a brace from Declan Rice secured a 3-2 victory at Bournemouth.

The Gunners saw their lead at the summit reduced to three points by Aston Villa’s 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest earlier today.

And it looked like it might be a damaging evening for Mikel Arteta’s men when Evanilson pounced on a Gabriel error to give Bournemouth the early lead.

However, Gabriel atoned for his mistake by restoring parity before Rice struck twice in the second half to put Arsenal in command.

Junior Kroupi frayed Arsenal’s nerves by coming back from a score down 14 minutes from time in normal time, but Arsenal held on to put the pressure back on the chasing pack, with Manchester City now seven points adrift of third place ahead of their meeting with managerless Chelsea on Sunday.

For Bournemouth, there are now no wins in their last 11 Premier League games, although they remain nine points above the bottom three.

Gabriel makes amends

Bournemouth were rewarded for an energetic start to the match as their press paid dividends, Gabriel’s poor pass in front of the box going straight into the path of Evanilson, who made no mistake in shooting beyond David Raya.

But Gabriel quickly made amends for his role in that opener in the 10th minute, going over after a blocked shot ricocheted into his path following excellent work from Noni Madueke.

Yet Arsenal couldn’t immediately build on that equalizer, and they were fortunate, nine minutes into the second half, that David Brooks was only able to fire in front of goal following a quickly taken free-kick from the hosts.

Rice soon punished them for this profligacy.

Rice, the Arsenal hero

A minute after Brooks’ missed chance, Rice put Arsenal ahead, marking his return from the injury that prevented him from featuring in style in the midweek win over Villa.

Martin Odegaard placed the ball into Rice’s path after an impressive hold-up from Viktor Gyokeres, and Rice’s finish in the bottom right corner left Djordje Petrovic with no chance.

Seventeen minutes later he doubled Arsenal’s lead in much the same way, meeting Bukayo Saka’s right-wing pullback with another composed strike that left Bournemouth with a mountain to climb.

Kroupi gave them hope of a fightback with a superb curling effort into the far corner. However, Arsenal were comfortable seeing the match end afterwards.