Arsène Wenger hailed his players’ “great resilience and mental strength” after Arsenal scored three times in the final 20 minutes at Bournemouth to complete a remarkable fightback and escape with a point at the end of a thrilling game. Trailing 3-0 and subjected to chants from their supporters mocking their performance as “embarrassing”, Arsenal turned the match on its head when Olivier Giroud headed an injury-time equaliser.
It felt like a point gained in the context of what had gone on earlier, yet will ultimately be viewed as two dropped when it comes to the title race. Arsenal are eight points behind Chelsea, who also have a game in hand.
Wenger acknowledged his team “suffered defensively” on a night when Ryan Fraser, who scored Bournemouth’s third goal, tormented Héctor Bellerín. The Arsenal manager claimed Bellerín was carrying an injury and once again expressed his annoyance that his team had been asked to play twice in the space of two days while Bournemouth had an additional 24 hours’ rest.
Arsenal lost Francis Coquelin with a hamstring injury in the first half and Wenger withdrew Laurent Koscielny in the second half because the defender was suffering with cramp. Bournemouth also inflicted plenty of damage, with the early goals from Charlie Daniels and Callum Wilson seeing the home team race into a deserved two-goal lead.
Alexis Sánchez pulled one back for Arsenal in the 70th minute, Lucas Pérez superbly volleyed in their second and Giroud, after Simon Francis had a little harshly received a straight red card for a challenge on Aaron Ramsey, scored the third.
“It was a physical test and a mental test for us,” Wenger said. “A physical test because we had problems to start to cope with the pace of Bournemouth. Defensively we had some problems. You have to acknowledge the quality of Bournemouth, congratulations to them. But also it’s too uneven to have only two days to play against a team that had more than three days rest and it took us a while to get back into the game.
“On top of that we were a bit unlucky as well, we conceded a penalty, and with 70 minutes played we were 3-0 down, so it was a mental test. But we succeeded because we have a great resilience in the team and great mental strength, and that came out. In the end we were even frustrated not to win the game.”
Bournemouth caused Arsenal no end of problems for an hour, in particular through the pace of Wilson, Josh King and Fraser. “We suffered defensively in some positions but they scored four against Liverpool, so they can score goals, it’s a team who is dangerous,” Wenger said. “But defensively we had some weaknesses that were unusual.”
Giroud has scored in three successive games. “I said on Sunday that Giroud can score important goals, he has done that again,” Wenger said. “I also think Pérez scored an exceptional goal of pure class. But we have mixed feelings after a game like that. We wanted three points and we got one. But when you are 3-0 down after 70 minutes you take a point.”
Eddie Howe was full of praise for his own players, describing them as “exceptional” and admitting they were devastated in the changing room afterwards. He described the decision of the referee, Michael Oliver, to send off Francis as “harsh” but felt the key moment in the match was 12 minutes earlier when Sánchez scored Arsenal’s first goal. “That changed the momentum of the game in a moment when really we looked quite comfortable,” the Bournemouth manager said.