Premier League Round 13: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The Bad

More Bournemouth bad luck.

Bournemouth’s injury woes have received extensive coverage throughout the good, the bad and the ugly this season — and for good reason — but they can’t seem to buy any sort of break at all.

The Cherries squandered a two-goal lead against Swansea City, who are struggling so badly that the hot rumor before kickoff was that Garry Monk would be fired if they lost.

The circumstances around that second goal were most unfortunate for Eddie Howe and Bournemouth.

Andre Ayew, who scored the first goal during Swansea’s comeback, ran into the penalty area and earned his side a penalty kick from referee Andre Marriner.

Bournemouth defender Simon Francis does make slight contact, and I mean extremely slight, with Ayew’s heel, but it certainly was not enough to warrant Ayew going down. What causes Ayew to go down is that his own back foot collides with his front foot.

I didn’t think it was a penalty, but Marriner did, and that is what matters.

JonJo Shelvey scored and that capped a 2-2 draw. Bournemouth scored twice inside the first 26 minutes and did not even make it to halftime with the lead.

Add it to a long list of disappointing events at Bournemouth since earning promotion to the Premier League for the first time in club history.

Arsenal does it again.

It happens every year, multiple times usually. Arsenal drop ridiculous points against a vastly inferior opponent at the exact moment that you think they have turned the corner.

Not only do these poor results come around the time expectations are growing, but it tends to happen when there is a massive opportunity just begging to be taken.

An example of this common occurrence is Arsenal’s season opening home defeat to West Ham. No one expected it. Arsenal were billed as title contenders due to the acquisition of former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and the idea that it would plug a significant gap in their teams of the past.

Cech has performed well, for the most part, but there always seems to be something missing. Now, the complaint is that Arsenal need a holding midfielder, especially since Francis Coquelin’s recent long-term injury.

No team is perfect. There is always going to be room for improvement. I do not think that is Arsenal’s biggest problem. It is not the impediment most responsible for keeping Arsene Wenger’s side from adding a Premier League trophy to its collection for the first time since 2004.

They cannot help but to trip themselves up, numerous times, against teams they simply should not lose to.

Every Premier League champion has had a few odd results. It happens. No championship team is immune from it.

Arsenal seem downright drawn to this occurrence and it plagues them too many times to end up winning the title.

It struck them again this past weekend when they suffered a strange 2-1 loss to West Brom. It is bad enough losing 2-1 to West Brom with a chance to go top of the table with a win, but the worst part is they way it happened.

A Mikel Arteta own goal. Really, Arsenal? Really?

Oh, wait, It actually got worse for Arsenal.

84th minute.

Mark Clattenburg awards Arsenal a penalty.

Santi Cazorla steps up to take the important shot and he slipped. The slip caused his shot to blaze over the bar and Arsenal lost their chance to level the match.

All of this after Olivier Giroud’s 28th minute goal put Arsenal in front. The lead would last just seven minutes before James Morrison drew the match level for West Brom, and then the own goal happened a mere five minutes later.

Matches like this are why Arsenal end up losing the Premier League. Inevitably, the Gunners find a way to have more matches like this one than their competitors.

Until they can nip this habit in the bud, or at least trim it down a bit, they are destined to disappoint their supporters year after year.

Next: The Ugly