Arsenal 3–2 Bournemouth: Nelson scores the last winner in the thriller Emirates
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Arsenal scored the last winning goal
A late Reiss Nelson goal saw Arsenal come from two goals down to beat bottom side Bournemouth and maintain their five–point lead at the top of the Premier League.
With Manchester City beating Newcastle earlier in the day, leaders Mikel Arteta had to scramble from behind, substitute Nelson sealing a stunning 3-2 win with a fine winner.
The struggling Cherries have only won away at Nottingham Forest and Wolves this season but raced into an early lead when Philip Billing scored the second-fastest goal in Premier League history.
They doubled their advantage when Marcos Senesi headed home after the interval before the Gunners finally came back.
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A fit-again Thomas Partey scored one goal before Ben White’s first goal for Arsenal – and his first in 955 days – brought them level with 20 minutes remaining.
They would need plenty of time, and more, as Nelson – in his first league appearance since 12 November – nearly scored the last kick six minutes of stoppage time to break Bournemouth’s heart and lift the roof of the Emirates Stadium.
The home crowd was stunned in the wee hours of late afternoon as Billing scored after just 9.11 seconds, turning in Dango Ouattara’s cross to freeze the home defence.
Arsenal appeared to respond immediately but Neto made a fine low save from Martin Odegaard before fighting back to deny Bukayo Saka’s effort on the rebound.
Bournemouth could have scored a second as they broke down an Arsenal attack, who were now dominating possession, with former Cherries keeper Aaron Ramsdale making a crucial save from Ouattara’s strike.
The hosts were forced into early changes as Leandro Trossard limped off to be replaced by Emile Smith Rowe with a game that looked to be set up as attack against defence.
Gabriel Martinelli, moving down the middle after Trossard was injured, hit the outside of the post to end a frustrating first half for the leaders, who failed to have a shot on target after Saka’s fifth minute goal.
White was brought on for Takehiro Tomiyasu at the break when another Odegaard low shot at least tested Neto with the game falling into the same routine as the first half.
Despite coming close to dominating, Arteta’s men paid for their poor attacking play as Bournemouth went 2-0 up when Senesi burst past Partey to head in a corner.
Partey made amends soon after, scoring from a Smith Rowe header after Bournemouth had failed to clear a corner.
Bournemouth caused Arsenal problems every time they went ahead and Ramsdale had to be alert to save from Dominic Solanke moments after the lead was halved.
But the Gunners equalized shortly after, White completing a cross from fellow substitute Nelson that Neto was unable to keep out.
Nelson was fired up after replacing Smith Rowe with Arsenal chasing the game and, when a corner came his way, he controlled the ball before finishing brilliantly to give Arsenal all three points.