Amazing to behold or a fountain of emotions at Emirates Stadium! Reiss Nelson’s brilliant turnaround in the seventh minute of the setup

Arsenal knew they needed to score at full strength to maintain their lead at the top of the table. The pursuing Manchester City beat Newcastle 2-0 at home in the earlier game. The Gunners hosted Bournemouth and the cards were dealt very favourably.

What happens when the first team in the table welcomes a team from the opposite end of the table at home? Well, it is often a very tricky game. And Arsenal’s duel with Bournemouth is proof of that.

Bournemouth, being at that time the penultimate, now even the last team in the Premier League, were logically a huge underdog in that encounter.

But as is usual in football, and in the Premier League especially, the paper assumptions seemed for a long time to be completely off and unnecessary. Just 11 seconds had passed since the opening kick-off when Philip Billing opened the scoring account for the match.

And that was the first cold shower for the home side and a huge boost for the visitors. From the first chance, they immediately took the lead and hoped for a really good result and a point. And the point contribution became even more real when Marcos Senesi increased the score to 2: 0 after the change of sides in the 57th minute.

But of course, coach Mikel Arteta’s charges did not give up. They were clearly more active in the match, taking 30 shots and having possession of the ball 81% of the time. The activity led to success for the first time in the 62nd minute when Thomas Partey reduced the deficit.

The next big milestone of the game came in the 69th minute when Reiss Nelson came on. It took him just a minute to send in a goalbound pass which was converted by Ben White to tie the game.

The game went to extra time. The head referee set six minutes, but due to the delays during the setup, the home team could have had a corner late in the 97th minute.

The advantage of the corner kick was only “deflected” by the home team beyond the penalty area, where Nelson found the ball and scored a great shot to give his team the three points. The substitute threw the whole stadium into absolute euphoria.

Naturally, there were debates on social media about whether the whistle should have been blown. But lately it is true that referees are trying to set more minutes to allow more time to be played. And if there are substitutions or other delays during the setup, there’s no problem stretching it even further.

Think back to the World Cup in Qatar, where this was indeed a big issue. It should be noted, generally speaking, a larger portion of set minutes is often fair rather than the other way around.

Understandably, however, this too has its detractors. Either way, this shot was really hugely important in the title fight. Arsenal remain top of the Premier League by five points.

Sources: Premier League, Twitter