Chelsea’s mixed-bag start to the Premier League continued as they played a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth and failed to score for the second successive PL match in a row. Mauricio Pochettino-managed Blues side featured six players who made their first-ever top-flight appearance.
But it made no difference as they could not bounce back from the 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest at home previously. In the first half, Nicolas Jackson hit the post, but Chelsea had Robert Sanchez to thank for a wonderful stop on Bournemouth’s Dango Ouattara. The visitors came even closer in the second half, but Raheem Sterling’s free-kick hit the crossbar and Levi Colwill’s follow-up was ruled out for offside, leaving them in the bottom half with just five points from five games. Chelsea is in the 14th spot with a win, two losses and two draws, giving them a total of five points. Bournemouth is at 15th, drawing three and losing two in five matches. They have three points to their name.
Arsenal Edges Past Everton
A second-half strike by Leandro Trossard helped Arsenal secure a hard-fought 1-0 win over Everton to end their five-match winless run at the Goodison Park. Trossard came into the match as a first-half substitute for an injured Gabriel Martinelli. He made an impact by firing the winning goal in the 69th minute.
It followed a controversially disallowed Martinelli strike in the first half, when VAR adjudged Eddie Nketiah to be fractionally offside earlier in the phase of play, despite the ball only reaching him by a hefty deflection from Everton striker Beto.
Martinelli faced a hamstring injury and all the positive momentum Gunners had, disappeared. The match was a stop-start affair in the first half and both teams could not make a lot of clear opportunities. In the second half, Arsenal tried to dominate, but Everton offered resistance in the form of solid defending from James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite, who made some useful blocks. Eventually, Everton succumbed to pressure and Gunners took a corner, the ball was worked quickly to Bukayo Saka on the right-hand side of the box and Trossard brilliantly received the pass and slammed it into the net past Jordan Pickford to make it 1-0 in 69th minute.
Everton had a tumultuous week off the field, with its Chairman Farhad Moshiri agreeing to sell the club to 777 Partners, subject to Premier League approval. They offered very little improvement as an attacking side throughout the match. The Gunners looked to add to their lead, but Martin Odegaard was denied by Pickford and Fabio Vieira’s effort was blocked by Vitaliy Mykolenko.
Now, the Gunners have moved to the fourth spot in the PL table. They have four wins and a draw, with a total of 13 points. Everton is in 18th spot, with one draw and four losses in five games, which has given them only one point.