Arsenal's Champions League preparations go wrong after another loss to Bournemouth

This was not the way Arsenal wanted to prepare for the Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain.

Ahead of Wednesday's crucial second leg in Paris, Mikel Arteta's team squandered another lead and lost to Bournemouth 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.

PSG also lost by the same score against Strasbourg but the context was different.

PSG, leading 1-0 after the first leg against Arsenal, has already wrapped up the Ligue 1 title and coach Luis Enrique rested front-line players.

While Arsenal's title hopes were ended last week, its bid to be runner-up for the third year in a row was under threat from Manchester City and Newcastle, and even Champions League qualification is not yet certain.

Defeat at home to Bournemouth continued its alarming domestic slump in the second half of the season.

Arsenal has won only three of its last 10 league games and just one of the last five.

Blowing the lead against Bournemouth was the fourth time in five league games that Arsenal has dropped points from a winning position.

Declan Rice opened the scoring but Bournemouth turned the game on its head after the break.

Dean Hujsen headed the visitor level from a corner and Evanilson poked in the winner from close range eight minutes later.

“We had so many open situations, big spaces, big opportunities to score, and we didn’t,” Arteta said. “When we have them we didn’t kill them, we give them hope, and then they score from set-pieces. It became very chaotic.”

Bournemouth completed a league double against Arsenal following a 2-0 win in October.

Arsenal is three points ahead of City with three rounds to go. Fourth-placed Newcastle is five behind Arsenal with a game in hand.

Youri Tielemans kept Aston Villa in the hunt for Champions League qualification.

The midfielder's first-half header sealed a 1-0 win over Fulham that moved seventh-placed Villa level on points with Chelsea in fifth and Nottingham Forest in sixth.

Villa bounced back after losing the FA Cup semifinal against Crystal Palace a week earlier.

“We wanted that win so badly in front of our fans, especially after last week," Tielemans said. "This was a massive win for us."

The top five teams qualify for next season's Champions League and just four points separate third-placed Manchester City and Villa.

Tielemans headed in powerfully from an early corner but Villa could not extend its lead. Substitute Donyell Malen hit the bar in stoppage time.

Villa was a Champions League quarterfinalist this season after a 41-year absence from Europe’s top club competition. But its season has come off the rails in recent weeks after being eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, losing to top-five rival Manchester City and being knocked out of the FA Cup.

Returning to the Champions League would end the season on a high.

“We’re not favorites because other teams are in front of us, but we can continue to dream for it, playing strongly to take again the Champions League,” manager Unai Emery said. “The real objective is for us to be in Europe, and after today we are close to being in there.”

Leicester won for the first time since January by beating last-placed Southampton 2-0.

With both teams already relegated, there was little but pride at stake at King Power Stadium and Leicester gave its fans some rare cheer with only its fifth league win.

Club great Jamie Vardy — leaving at the end of the season — scored in the 17th and Jordan Ayew added the second from a free kick just before halftime.

Leicester’s last win was on Jan. 26 against Tottenham.

Southampton's 28th loss of a miserable campaign could see it equal Derby’s record for the lowest points total in a Premier League. Derby ended the 2008-09 campaign with 11 points.

With three rounds remaining, Southampton has 11 points.

Relegated Ipswich fought back from 2-0 down to draw with Everton 2-2.

Beto and Dwight McNeil put Everton in control in the Merseyside club's penultimate game at Goodison Park before it moves to a new stadium.

But Julio Enciso's stunning long-range effort before the break sparked a comeback for Ipswich. Substitute George Hirst leveled with a far post header.

Manor Soloman scored in added time to win the second division title for Leeds.

A 2-1 comeback win against Plymouth saw Leeds edge Burnley by goal difference at the top of the Championship.

Both teams were promoted to the Premier League with 100 points.

Burnley started the final day of the Championship in second place and looked set to be crowned champion by beating Millwall 3-1. That was until Soloman's dramatic late goal for Leeds in the first minute of added time.

Coventry and Bristol City joined Sheffield United and Sunderland in the playoffs for the last promotion spot.

Luton Town, a top flight team last season, suffered back-to-back relegations after losing to West Brom 5-3, and will play in the third tier of English soccer.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Bournemouth players celebrate at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth at Emirates stadium in London, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Bournemouth players celebrate at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth at Emirates stadium in London, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta reacts during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth at Emirates stadium in London, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Arsenal's Martin Odegaard leaves the field at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth at Emirates stadium in London, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Ipswich Town's Julio Enciso shoots towards goal, during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Ipswich Town, at Goodison Park, in Liverpool, England, Saturday May 3, 2025. (Cody Froggatt/PA via AP)

Ipswich Town's Julio Enciso celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game, during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Ipswich Town, at Goodison Park, in Liverpool, England, Saturday May 3, 2025. (Cody Froggatt/PA via AP)

Southampton's Flynn Downes, left, and Leicester City's Oliver Skipp in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Leicester City and Southampton at the King Power Stadium, Leicester, England, Saturday May 3, 2025. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

Leeds United's Ethan Ampadu and teammates celebrate with the trophy after being crowned champions following the English Football League Championship soccer match against Plymouth Argyle, at Home Park, in Plymouth, England, Saturday May 3, 2025. (Steven Paston/PA via AP)

Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins, centre, and Fulham's Kenny Tete battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Fulham at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

Aston Villa's Youri Tielemans, second from left, scores the opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Fulham at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

Aston Villa's Youri Tielemans scores the opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Fulham at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--

Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/

Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.

This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.

Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.

“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”

The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:

“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”

About Availity

Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Abridge

Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.

Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.

Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation