Arsenal suffer Bournemouth defeat ahead of PSG showdown
LONDON: Arsenal suffered a blow ahead of their Champions League showdown with Paris Saint-Germain as Evanilson fired Bournemouth to a 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. Mikel Arteta’s side took the lead through Declan Rice’s opener on his 100th appearance for the club. But Dean Huijsen equalized in the second half and Evanilson completed the comeback to give Bournemouth their first ever away win over Arsenal. Beaten 1-0 by PSG in the Champions League semifinal first leg on Tuesday, Arsenal will need a much-improved performance in the second leg in Paris on Wednesday. The second-placed Gunners also still require six points to guarantee Champions League qualification for next season via a top five finish in the Premier League. Arteta admitted this week that it was “very painful” to watch Liverpool celebrate winning the Premier League title last weekend. The Gunners finished as runners-up behind Manchester City for the last two seasons and the Champions League is their last hope of a trophy this term. Arteta is still waiting to win the second trophy of his six-year Arsenal reign, with his last silverware coming in the 2020 FA Cup. Arsenal last reached the Champions League final in 2006 and have never won the tournament. With so much at stake in the Parc des Princes next week, it was intriguing to see Arteta select a full strength side for a relatively meaningless game against Bournemouth. Instead of resting, key stars Rice, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba were all in Arsenal’s starting line-up. Jurrien Timber and Mikel Merino were the notable absentees for Arsenal, with Arteta revealing the former will need a fitness test to determine his availability for the PSG game. Bournemouth arrived in
