Arsenal stunned by Bournemouth in 2-1 loss that lets Man City back into Premier League title race

Arsenal's Premier League title bid was hit by a stunning 2-1 loss to Bournemouth at home on Saturday.

The league leader blew the chance to move 12 points clear of second-place Manchester City after losing for the third time in four games in all competitions.

“It's a big punch in the face,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told TNT Sports. “It has to hurt, and you have to take it on the chin.”

Alex Scott struck a 74th-minute winner at the Emirates to pile pressure on Arsenal ahead of next week's top-of-the-table clash at City.

Arteta's team has played two more games than City, which travels to Chelsea on Sunday and could close the gap to six points.

"There are no gray areas now. You stand up and go for the fight, or you’re out and that’s it,” Arteta said.

Arsenal’s form appears to be slipping at a crucial point of the season. Defeats to City in the English League Cup final and second-division Southampton in the FA Cup ended its pursuit of a quadruple of trophies.

It won 1-0 in the Champions League against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday, but the latest loss will only heighten tension in the race for the title after three straight years of finishing runner-up in England’s top flight.

Arsenal now faces a huge week when it plays Sporting in the second leg of Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday and then travels to City's Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Bournemouth went ahead inside 17 minutes through Junior Kroupi’s close-range goal. Viktor Gyokeres leveled the score from the penalty spot in the 35th, but Arsenal struggled to create openings and Scott sealed the victory that potentially blew the title race open.

Bournemouth has now won in back-to-back seasons at Arsenal and set a new club record run of 12 games unbeaten in the Premier League.

While Arsenal remains in the driver's seat at the top of the standings, the form guide does not make good reading from Arteta’s perspective.

League stats provider Opta said before kickoff that the Arsenal manager’s Premier League win percentage in April was 44%, compared to 79% for City's Pep Guardiola.

“It’s a big week,” Arteta said. “It’s a lot at stake. We’re still in a really good position in both competitions, but we need to do better.”

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

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

Bournemouth's Alex Scott scores his side's second goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

Arsenal's Gabriel reacts following defeat in Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

Arsenal's Declan Rice reacts during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)

Arsenal's Viktor Gyokeres, left, scores their side's first goal of the game from the penalty spot during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth, in London, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

Bournemouth's Evanilson, and Eli Junior Kroupi celebrate after scoring during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)

Bournemouth's Eli Junior Kroupi scores during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)

Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta reacts during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London, England Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia continued to strike Ukrainian positions with drones after a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire took effect Saturday, a Ukrainian military officer told The Associated Press, casting immediate doubt over the truce.

“The ceasefire is not being observed by the Russian side,” said Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade.

He said that while artillery fire had paused in the sector where his brigade was working, at the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian forces continued to use drones to strike Ukrainian positions.

He said Ukrainian forces were responding with “silence to silence and fire to fire.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. Saturday until the end of Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised Saturday to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. But he warned there would be a swift military response to any violations.

“Easter should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire (at) Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace,” Zelenskyy wrote in an online post on Saturday.

But he added: “We all understand who we are dealing with. Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind.”

Ukraine earlier proposed to Russia a pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday.

Previous ceasefire attempts have had little impact, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described Putin’s move as a “humanitarian” gesture, but said Moscow remains focused on a comprehensive settlement based on its longstanding demands — a key sticking point that has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.

Hours before the ceasefire was due to begin, Russian drone strikes killed at least two people in the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight into Saturday, local authorities reported.

A further two people were wounded in the attack on the Black Sea port city, when drones hit a residential area, damaging apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into force.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that a prisoner swap Saturday brought home 175 of its soldiers.

Zelenskyy confirmed Saturday’s exchange, saying that 175 service members and seven civilians were returned.

“Most had been held in captivity since 2022. And finally, they are home,” he wrote on X.

At the exchange site in northern Ukraine, Svitlana Pohosyan waited for her son’s return. Asked about the ceasefire, she said: “I want to believe it. God willing, may it be so. We will believe and hope that everything will be fine, that a ceasefire will come on such a holy day, and that there will be peace — peace in Ukraine and peace in the whole world.”

“My celebration will come when my son returns,” she added. “I will hold him in my arms — and that will be the greatest celebration for me. And for every mother, every family.”

Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.

Separately, seven residents of Russia's Kursk region returned from Ukraine Saturday after they were captured by the Ukrainian army, Russian state media reported. They were greeted at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border by Russia's human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova.

According to Moskalkova, the returnees were the last of those who were taken to Ukraine from the Kursk region after the Ukrainian army took control of parts of the region in 2024.

Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 in one of their biggest battlefield successes in the war. The incursion was the first time Russian territory was occupied by an invader since World War II and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.

Zhyhinas reported from northern Ukraine. Morton reported from London.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade press service on April 10, 2026, a Ukrainian serviceman looks at FPV drone takeoff during a training at the polygon in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade press service on April 10, 2026, a Ukrainian serviceman prepares a machine gun on a combat ground drone during a training at the polygon in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade via AP)

A rescue worker walks in front of residential building which was heavily damaged after a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Shtekel)