Bournemouth 3 Arsenal 3: Giroud the hero as gunners complete fantastic comeback to rescue a point

Arsenal launched a stunning fightback in the final 20 minutes to come from three goals down and rescue a point from their Premier League clash with 10-man Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this evening.

The hosts looked to be home and dry having taken a surprising but deserved three-goal lead through goals from Charlie Daniels, Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser in a one-sided opening hour.

However, Arsenal fought back dramatically in the final 20 minutes as Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Olivier Giroud staged a thrilling late comeback to prevent the Gunners from falling to a third consecutive away defeat.

Bournemouth, who began the match seven places better off than at the same stage last season, made a bright start to proceedings when Joshua King – one of three changes to Eddie Howe‘s side – fired narrowly wide of the target after just five minutes.

Petr Cech was called into action for the first time shortly afterwards when he held a powerful effort from Junior Stanislas, and Bournemouth felt that they should have had a penalty shortly afterwards when the Arsenal keeper brought down Callum Wilson, although he got a crucial touch on the ball first.

It was Bournemouth’s first ever home goal against the Gunners and only their second home and away, but it took just three minutes for them to double their tally on the night as Arsenal’s lacklustre start went from bad to worse.

Bournemouth broke quickly following a poor free kick from Granit Xhaka, and it was the Arsenal midfielder who gave away the penalty while tracking back, barging into Ryan Fraser just inside the penalty. Callum Wilson stepped up to take the spot kick and, just as he did in the reverse fixture, rolled his finish past Cech from 12 yards.

Arsenal finally had their first shot of the game midway through the half when Alexis Sanchez fired one high and wide, but their miserable performance got even worse shortly afterwards when Francis Coquelin was forced off with a hamstring injury.

The closest the visitors came to a goal in the first half, or indeed a shot on target, arrived just before the half-hour mark when Aaron Ramsey collected a pass from Sanchez before firing a shot on the turn just wide.

Arsene Wenger‘s side did create another good chance with just under five minutes to go until half time when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled the ball back for Alex Iwobi, but Simon Francis did enough to put the Arsenal man off as he skewed his finish wide.

Bournemouth were worthy of their lead, though, and they almost added a third in first-half stoppage time when Stanislas wrapped his foot around the ball and curled a 25-yard effort narrowly past the post.