Pep Guardiola goes straight to the fourth official, presumably to query the amount of added time. City’s players are on their haunches, processing the fact it’s all over.
Arsenal are champions of England for the first time in 22 years!
90+7 min Rodri’s shot is desperately blocked. Or was it Cherki’s? I DON’T KNOW.
90+6 min Truffert is booked for a hack at Marmoush. This is City’s last, last, last, last chance. Maybe even the last one.
City have 90 seconds to get another. After a penalty area scramble, Rodri’s shot hit the post and Haaland smoked the rebound into the top corner. Cracking finish.
90+4 min Marmoush’s free-kick hits the wall, then Foden misses his kick on the rebound.
90+3 min Now Kluivert fouls Rodri on the edge of the area. No second yellow card, but a chance for City to give Bournemouth and Arsenal a scare…
90+3 min Kluivert and Rodri have a row, then Khusanov and Scott do likewise. It settles down pretty quickly, after which Kluivert and Rodri are booked.
90+2 min This result, lest we forget, clinches a European place for Bournemouth,. they are still in with a serious chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
90+1 min Six minutes of added time.
David Brooks gallops through on goal after a perfectly timed pass from Unal. Donnarumma comes to meet him and Brooks curls a shot from 20 yards that thumps the right-hand post!
90 min: Double substitution Enes Unal. Lewis Cook replace Evanilson, who had run himself into the ground, and Adam Smith.
88 min: Great chance for Brooks! That could have been it. Brooks. who had loads of time at the far post, screwed a shot too close to Donnarumma from 15 yards after great play from Tavernier on the left. Evanilson then curled not far wide from distance.
87 min “I started following Arsenal in the 2010-11 season,. I’ve never had any expectations of them winning trophies, outside of an FA Cup at least 2-3 times every decade, so I’m largely removed from the rancour that Arsenal’s recent title challenges have elicited,” writes Russell Eberts. “If this result holds, will the narrative be that Arsenal didn’t earn their Premier League trophy,. that City ‘bottled it’ in the end?”
No, no chance. Arsenal are worthy champions; anyone who says otherwise needs a banter transplant. They’ll be called boring champions by some,. I’m sure that will take the gloss off the celebrations that are about to begin in the Gunners pub and elsewhere.
84 min: Bournemouth substitution David Brooks comes on for Rayan.
82 min I think City are cooked. They’ve looked leggy all night,. if he had his time again Pep Guardiola might make more than just one outfield change from the FA Cup final team. Then again, the fresher players have made little impact from the bench.
79 min When the mini-title race began a month ago, we all thought that three away games would be crucial: Arsenal at West Ham, Manchester City at Everton. Bournemouth. How right we were.
78 min A moment of fortune for Petrovic, who spills a dropping ball and grabs it at the second attempt. That could easily have fallen for O’Reilly in front of goal.
76 min: Man City substitution Omar Marmoush comes on for Jeremy Doku.
76 min: Bournemouth substitution Justin Kluivert replaces Arsenal legend Eli Junior Kroupi.
74 min Cherki wins a corner for City, who appear to have found a second wind. They need a second goal, but they have to score the first first.
The corner pinballs around before Tavernier calmly clears.
73 min If it stays like this. Pep Guardiola will have failed to win the league in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career. Failure gets us all in the end, if you can call a two-trophy season a failure.
71 min Doku tries to run Rayan, who ushers the ball behind for a goalkick. celebrates in front of the home fans. This Bournemouth team really are wonderful.
69 min Donnarumma reacts well to punch Rayan’s deflected cross round the post. Bournemouth aren’t just keeping City at bay, they’ve been on top in the last 10 minutes.
68 min After 22 years, Arsenal are now 22 minutes* away from their 14th league title.
* Plus added time, I know.
67 min Truffert busts his lungs yet again to win a corner for Bournemouth. He’s been magnificent tonight.
Scott’s corner is poor and headed away by Nunes.
66 min “So, next season,” begins Zach Neeley, “the managers of the supposed big six a will be an (either way) even more Arteta’d Arteta, Maresca not only in Pep’s shadow but fired by Chelsea this season in weird circumstances, Chelsea with the also recently fired Alonso who Liverpool always wanted, Liverpool w/ a shouldn’t have been fired but still itching to fire him Slot,. Carrick trying to avoid the “Manchester United manager entropy field” and being the next Ole. So the one with the most chill managerial situation would be, Tottenham? What a world.”
The words ‘chill’ and ‘Tottenham’ have just appeared in the same sentence, and life may never be the same again.
65 min Bournemouth weathered the storm at the start of the second half. Long way to go, obviously, but right now they are pretty comfortable.
64 min “Isn’t the big question of the evening, ‘Where is Pep going next?’” suggests Jeremy Boyce. “He’s made as much a story out of surprise changes of life and place as he has of winning trophies. Bodø/Glimt?”
63 min At the other end, Rodri whistles a rising drive into the crowd from 25 yards.
A corner from the right is headed down into the six-yard box by Hill. The ball hits Rayan. who reacts quickly to hook a shot on the turn that hits the outside of the post! Donnarumma might have saved it, I’m not sure.
60 min Kroupi whips a shot over the bar from 20 yards after another delightful Bournemouth move. Eventually Evanilson flocked the ball behind his front leg for the onrushing Kroupi. who couldn’t do the needful on this occasion.
59 min Hill is booked for a foul on Savinho.
58 min A goal is coming, I’m just not sure which end it will be scored at. Bournemouth are still counter-attacking with plenty of menace, and Adrien Truffert is a bullet train on the left.
57 min “Maybe Fifa should introduce a separate colour of card for sarcasm offenses,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “Like grey for its ambiguity. Or just black, in honour of Diego Simeone’s services to sarcasm.”
56 min: Triple substitution for Man City Savinho, Rayan Cherki. Phil Foden replace Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva… and Antoine Semenyo, who gets a lovely ovation from the home fans. How refreshing. (That’s not sarcasm.)
53 min Rodri’s deep cross leads to a bit of pinball before Bernardo Silva’s shot hits a defender. loops through to Petrovic. City knocked politely at the door in the first half; now they are hoofing it.
52 min Truffert’s low cross is stabbed towards goal by Evanilson, under pressure at the near post,. Donnarumma dives to push the shot round the post. It was going wide but he took no chances.
Chelsea v Tottenham latest
There’s been an early goal in the game at Stamford Bridge. Simon Burnton can tell you who scored it.
50 min Not for the first time in recent weeks. City have upped the tempo after (presumably) a half-time brollocking from Pep Guardiola. They are attacking with much greater intensity, though Bournemouth still look very dangerous in transition.
49 min Acchh I got the half-time quiz question wrong!
“Hi Rob,” writes O Harrison. “It was Mark Viduka, not Harry Kewell, who scored the goal that did for Arsenal in 2003. (Kewell’s opener was memorable though!)”
Given it was one of the happiest days of my life, you’d think I’d remember Viduka’s goal.
City almost equalised inside the first minute of the second half. Erling Haaland runs at a backpedalling defence. plays a deft through pass to Nico O’Reilly, whose shot from 10 yards is brilliantly saved to his right by Petrovic.
O’Reilly telegraphed the shot ever so slightly but Petrovic reacted superbly to reach to his right and keep it out.
46 min No changes yet from Pep Guardiola as Bournemouth get the second half under way. Andoni Iraola won’t want to change a thing.
Our half-time quiz winner is… Boris Starling
double quotation mark They all scored a goal. ensured a team not playing at the time would become champions - ie what Kroupi’s goal will do if the scoreline stays the same.
Tommy the Bairn, Ciarán McCabe. Chris Healy also sent in the correct answer, although I think my favourite answers were these.
Charles Antaki “They’re all still on 25-year contracts at Chelsea.”
Richard Hirst “They all have children in the Man City academy.”
“I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen, i.e. mostly no one, that Kroupi has Thierry Henry-like talent,” writes Kári Tulinius. “And now he’s gone. scored a Thierry Henry-like goal to put Arsenal on the brink of its first non-Thierry Henry title in 22 years.”
What do these footballers have in common? The first person to email the correct answer wins an imaginary prize.
You can’t smell solid sterling silver,. if you could Arsenal’s nostrils would be going ten to the dozen right now. They could be 45 minutes away from the Premier League title after Eli Junior Kroupi’s majestic goal gave Bournemouth a half-time lead against Manchester City.
City dominated possession without seriously testing Dorde Petrovic. Unless they win this game, Arsenal will be champions – and Bournemouth will qualify for Europe for the first time.
45+1 min Two minutes of added time. Guehi is down after a bit of a wrestling match with Evanilson. He’ll be okay.
45 min Semenyo shoots straight at Petrovic from the edge of the area.
43 min No reply to speak on from City. They’ve dominated possession throughout the half but are crying out for the wit, invention and personality of Rayan Cherki.
Truffert gallopsed down the left. screwed an excellent pass back towards the unmarked Kroupi on the edge of the area. He opened his body, used Khusanov as a screen and whipped a majestic curler into the far corner. He is out rage ously good for a teenager,. his goal has moved Arsenal even closer to the Premier League title.
Eli Junior Kroupi puts Bournemouth ahead with a beauty!
38 min “Regarding the Man City away strip currently being sported,” begins Ian Copestake. “Its designers Puma state,. I kid you not, that it’s ‘all-over, tonal raindrop pattern cascades across the gunmetal-grey background to evoke the city’s overcast skies and wet weather’.”
Target market, Ian, target market. If they’d ripped off the Joy Division Unknown Pleasures cover I’d be all over it.
37 min Tyler Adams is booked for sarcasm. He applauded when the referee gave a foul against Erling Haaland for a challenge on James Hill.
How do you prove sarcasm?
35 min The referee Anthony Taylor has a stern word – several – with one of the Bournemouth backroom staff. Not sure why.
34 min It’s still a high-class game. Sadly, a lot of that class is being demonstrated without the ball, so it remains a match of few chances.
33 min “I have no claim of being a soothsayer,” writes Jones from Nairobi. “but methinks that should Arsenal get the monkey off their back this season by winning the damn thing, they are likely to dominate for the foreseeable future. Don’t you think Pep has spied that possibility. walked away at an opportune moment, leaving the business of rebuilding to the poor guy who’s got to fill his enormous boots?”
I’m not sure about that. I assume he’s just shattered after a decade at City. Ordinarily he’d embrace the challenge, as he did when Liverpool won the league at a canter in 2019-20,. he has helpdd his successor enormously by starting the rebuild this season. Not all great managers bother to do that.
**Author: Harry Kewell Mark Viduka**
Discussion
Sign in to join the thread, react, and share images.