Three reasons this shouldn’t have been a big issue for Arsenal vs. Bournemouth

After going 3-0 down with just over half-an-hour to play, Arsenal looked to be heading towards a disappointing defeat against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night that would have further harmed their chances of winning the Premier League title.

However, an incredible turnaround saw them snatch a 3-3 draw – helped by the Cherries being reduced to ten men when Simon Francis was sent off for a challenge on Aaron Ramsey in the 82nd minute.

After playing poorly and being outfought by Eddie Howe’s side, Alexis Sanchez’s goal turned the match back in their favour, before substitute Lucas Perez netted a fine volley and the in-form Olivier Giroud scored from a header.

Despite grabbing a point that would have seemed like three immediately after the final whistle, Gunners supporters will be so frustrated that their side couldn’t play that well for the full game, and it appears to have become a recurring theme in recent weeks when you think back to the defeats against Everton and Manchester City and the narrow home win against West Brom.

Here are THREE ways that the draw against Bournemouth proved that the Gunners must start to dominate matches more…

They have the personnel

If Arsenal are to aspire to win the Premier League title, when they travel away to teams like Bournemouth they must play like they did in the final 20 minutes from the very first whistle.

Once Alexis Sanchez got one back on Tuesday night, the Cherries couldn’t handle the pressure they were coming under from Arsene Wenger’s side and it got to a point that it was almost inevitable that the Gunners would snatch at least a draw.

The north London outfit simply have to replicate that intensity going forward if they are to stay in touch with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool.

They have creativity & goalscorers

Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, Lucas Perez. The list goes on. If Arsene Wenger has these creative players and goalscorers at his disposal, then the Gunners should never be finding themselves 3-0 down against Bournemouth, with all due respect.

We aren’t even including the absent Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil here, and going forward Wenger must have these players firing from the off, rather than arguing on the pitch as Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey were in Dorset.

Pressing

Eddie Howe had set his side up perfectly to press the Arsenal players when they were in possession, and they didn’t like it.

Strangely enough, with the quality they have in their squad it should have been the Gunners players that were pressuring the ball from the start of the match, and when they finally did in the final stages of the game, Bournemouth struggled.

When you have stars such as Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, who all love to run, Arsenal must go away and have that impetus and desire to go out and want to win the match from the very start.

It is surely something that Arsene Wenger will be working on ahead of their trip to Swansea on January 14 so they don’t drop more points.