Hargreaves names only two Arsenal stars who ‘played properly’ as three things ‘lacking’ | OneFootball

Owen Hargreaves claims just two Arsenal players “played properly” in their 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth in yet another game which saw the league leaders “outplayed” by their opponents.

Alex Scott gave the Cherries victory as Arsenal were cut open at the Emirates after Viktor Gyokeres had cancelled out Junior Kroupi’s early goal from the penalty spot.

The result means second-placed Manchester City will draw level on points with the Gunners if they win their two games in hand and beat Mikel Arteta’s side in a crunch clash next Sunday.

Arsenal have now lost three of their last four games in all competitions, with the 1-0 win over Sporting in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final following Carabao Cup final defeat to City and the humbling loss to Southampton in the FA Cup.

Martin Keown has hit out at the Gunners players for failing to pass to wonderkid Max Dowman when he was introduced in the second half and amid talk of bottling the title, Hargreaves claims the vast majority of the Arsenal players didn’t “play properly” and picked out three things that were “lacking” against Bournemouth.

“They [Arsenal] didn’t play confident,” Hargreaves told Premier League Productions.

“I was at the game and the crowd were super up for it at the beginning of the game, by the end of it they were not happy with what they saw.

“The only ones who played properly were Declan Rice and Gabriel, the rest of them got thoroughly outplayed.

“Bournemouth were brilliant by the way, they pressed the life out of Arsenal.

“Arsenal could not keep the ball for the life of them, kept going long, they’d pass the ball back to the goalkeeper, I think it was 39 times in the game, David Raya had the second-most passes of an Arsenal player.

“They just really encouraged Bournemouth into that press and the press is probably one of the best in the Premier League but they just surprised Arsenal and they deserved to win the game.

“I think the biggest problem is they’ve been outplayed in three of the last four games – City in the Carabao Cup final, Southampton in the FA Cup, and then today.

“They had the win against Sporting but David Raya was one of their best players in that game and he made quite a few saves so there is a little bit of a trend there where they’re being outplayed.

“They’ve worked so hard to get to this point but they have to finish the job. Today they lacked a little bit of courage, belief and a little bit of aggression in crucial moments, Bournemouth were more aggressive today.”