It started with Junior Kroupi closing down Gabriel Magalhães down the Arsenal left flank, just outside their box. The high press did not have the intensity that the Marcelo Bielsa disciple Andoni Iraola craves, but in the 74th minute of a high-intensity match against the league leaders at their home, that was understandable. What was more important is that there was a sense of purpose to the close-down: done at an angle that perfectly cut out the pass Gabriel had planned.
It was this sense of purpose that had defined Bournemouth’s play at the Emirates on Saturday, that had kept the score at 1-1 and left most watching wondering if Arsenal would be able to hold on to that score. Kroupi’s purposeful press was about to turn that doubt into certainty.
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As the ball looped up off Kroupi’s boot, Tyler Adams backtracked and headed it up in the air, angling it toward Harry Brooks on the right. Reading his teammate’s signals, Brooks went up, outjumping Myles Lewis-Skelly with ease and nodding it back to Kroupi’s feet.
Having won the ball, Brooks didn’t stand still, and seeing him cut in off the ball, Kroupi took a touch and immediately played it back to him. A couple of touches from Brooks squared up Declan Rice, before he played it forward to Evanilson-who turned his body and cushioned it to his left.
Now, if you had been watching what Brooks and Kroupi were up to on the right flank – like Martín Zubimendi had been – that cushioned touch from Evanilson would have meant nothing. A mis control or a missed pass that killed a promising move, and nothing much more. What you would have missed, like Zubimendi did, would have been Alex Scott going from casual jog to full sprint to get onto the end of that Evanilson touch. The run didn’t have the urgency that might have alerted the Arsenal midfield and defence, but much like everything done in the rest of this move, it had a clear sense of purpose.
Scott’s acceleration started in earnest once he had ghosted in behind Zubimendi, as he saw the goal open up, with William Saliba engaged with Evanilson and Gabriel hopelessly out of position at left-back. One touch and he was one-on-one with David Raya, a superb keeper in the form of his life.
It was a finish of sublime skill, an emphatic full stop at the end of a beautifully constructed move. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Scott, though, didn’t fret.
The midfield tempo-setter for Iraola, Scott has the Basque coach’s purpose-first focus ingrained in his psyche and there’s a reason he trusts him to run the show in the centre of the field for Bournemouth. Just before this move, Iraola had moved Scott a little further up the pitch, asking substitute Adams to be the deeper lying of the midfield double pivot. The childhood Spurs fan had been magnificent in the deeper role at the Emirates, as he had been all season across many a pitch in the land, but that tweak was about to give Bournemouth a famous win.
As he ran through and looked Raya in the eye, he hesitated ever so slightly. It wasn’t nerves, and it wasn’t accidental: for it made Raya commit to a dive to his left, allowing Scott to sweep it to the other, empty, side of the net.
With a sweep of his right boot, Alex Scott had thrown open the Premier League title race once again Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images
It was a finish of sublime skill, an emphatic full stop at the end of a beautifully constructed move that had just the right mix of urgency and purpose to land a knockout blow on the bewildered Gunners. It wasn’t just a goal that ended a run of five straight draws for Bournemouth, nor one that merely helped them climb from the bottom half of the table to the top half.
After all, with a sweep of his right boot, Alex Scott had thrown open the Premier League title race once again. Measured, purposeful, superbly taken – it was a goal worthy of the moment.