‘Why?’—USMNT Premier League Star Takes Brutal Swipe at Arsenal

A fundamental issue potentially undermining Arsenal’s title challenge has been highlighted by Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams.

Kai Havertz (left) lost to Tyler Adams’s Bournemouth in April. | James Gill-Danehouse/Getty Images/Men in Blazers/YouTube

“Why’s it so quiet in here?” U.S. men’s national team captain Tyler Adams remembered thinking to himself during Bournemouth’s Premier League victory over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Adams came off the bench for the final 20 minutes of the top-flight clash earlier this month with the score locked at 1–1. After crashing out of the Carabao and FA Cup in successive games, the north London crowd was palpably fearful of a Premier League setback just as Manchester City clicked into top gear. Adams and the rest of the Bournemouth roster harnessed that nervous energy to their own advantage.

“At certain moments in the game I heard our fans celebrating or cheering and it was like: ‘Why’s it so quiet in here?’” Adams recalled during an appearance on the Men in Blazers podcast.

For years, Arsenal had been dogged with the reputation of a demonstrably restrained fanbase. The club’s former Highbury ground was christened “the Library” by opposition supporters and that stigma was transferred across to the Emirates, even if there was no satisfactory rhyme to be found.

Mikel Arteta has embarked upon the painstaking process of enlivening the atmosphere during his tenure. There has been some success but the nerves of another potentially failed title tilt appear to have gotten the better of this tortured crowd. Before that lunchtime kickoff with Bournemouth, Arteta called upon fans to “have an early breakfast, bring your lunch [and] bring your dinner.” Maybe their mouths were stuffed with food because there was little cheering.

“They’re trying to chase a title, we’re trying to chase potentially finishing in a European position, but it feels like we’re playing for a little bit more in the circumstances,” Adams damningly reflected. “I think it can be really difficult when you’re in an environment like that.”

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Adams: Arsenal Fans Hurting the Team

Arsenal have been thrust onto the back foot. | Mark Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto/Getty Images

“We told ourselves before the game we had to put ourselves in their shoes,” Adams explained. “They have a whole lot to play for. We have a lot to play for but it’s a different circumstance when you’re chasing a title.

“We knew it was probably going to be a little bit nervy, and if one things goes wrong, and the fans start getting a little bit anxious, and I think we played into that occasion.”

Within the opening exchanges of Bournemouth’s visit, the angst within the crowd became abundantly apparent. Every throw-in which Ben White took was not taken quickly enough, each backwards pass was met with a groan and every forward thrust from the away side inspired collective gasps. Yet, as Adams pointed out, Arsenal’s players were operating with the same inhibition. Eventually, they gave in to the atmosphere.

“You can tell early on, when they’re trying to play out from the back, that there was a sense of nervousness,” the USMNT captain explained. “The thing was, the team was playing well. Arsenal in the first five, 10 minutes played some of the best football they did in that game, and you saw they were confident.

Tyler Adams (right) got the better of Arsenal. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

“But it just takes one little error, one little mistake, and the fans get a little bit nervy. That’s a difficult atmosphere to play in and thrive in when you’re trying to chase a championship. Because we talk about them like they’re not sitting first in the table still.

“As an opposition it’s the best thing too hear. When you’re playing an away game and all of a sudden it feels like the momentum is swinging and it feels like a home game.”

Bournemouth took a 17th-minute lead which only compounded the Emirates’ woes. Even when Viktor Gyǒkeres equalized from the penalty spot, that nervousness persisted, acting as a self-fulfilling prophecy when Alex Scott ultimately nabbed the winning goal from a mistake Arsenal made while playing out from the back.

Three of the Gunners’ final five Premier League matches are on home turf, including their next two. Under normal circumstances, this should be an advantage. But if the crowd continue to have such a demonstrably negative impact that even the opposition notice, it will be a painful conclusion to the campaign.

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