Mikel Arteta had wanted something less stressful than Arsenal’s previous home win over Bournemouth and he got his wish. In March of last year, his team had needed a 97th-minute Reiss Nelson goal to complete a wild 3-2 victory from 2-0 down. Here there was glory in the general sense of comfort and control, Arsenal moving to 83 points, doing everything they could to ask the question of the defending champions, Manchester City, in the race for the Premier League title.
It was not entirely straightforward; it rarely is. Arsenal caught a break at 2-0 up when an Antoine Semenyo goal was disallowed on the advice of the VAR for a foul by Dominic Solanke on the goalkeeper, David Raya.
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