New coach, Mikel Arteta said Arsenal’s attitude was better than he expected. The Gunners rescued a point at Bournemouth in the Spaniard’s first match in charge.
Midfielder Gosling gave the hosts the lead from close range after Jack Stacey’s cut back before Arsenal’s captain came to the rescue.
Aubameyang struck with a first-time shot after Reiss Nelson’s attempt from the edge of the penalty area deflected into the Gabon forward’s path.
Being the first match in charge, Arteta’s side reaches the halfway stage of the season in the bottom half of the table. Arsenal has won only one of their last 11 league games. Yet, Arteta believes there were enough positives against Bournemouth to be optimistic about the second half of the campaign.
“I am pleased with a lot of things I have seen and a lot of things we practiced that happened.” Said Arteta.
“I am not happy we have not won the game. But happy overall. In terms of attitude, desire and commitment it was better than I expected.”
Work ahead for Arteta
Arsenal reaches the midway point closer to the relegation zone than the top four. The club has now dropped 24 points from the last 11 to-flight games.
As Arsenal players went to applaud the away fans at the end of an entertaining game, there was a special cheer for Arteta.
The Spaniard saw his side create plenty of chances in the first half. Yet, Aubameyang’s goal, a sweeping instinctive finish was their first attempt on target after a string of missed opportunities.
Arsenal once again made life hard for themselves. A careless pass allowed Gosling to put Bournemouth ahead towards the end of the first half.
Mesut Ozil began the Arteta era with a recall. He started well creating a couple of chances before being replaced by Joe Willock.
The young substitute had a chance to win it in the closing stages. But Arsenal was far from clinical in front of goal. His shot was comfortably kept out by Aaron Ramsdale as Bournemouth secured a deserved point.
What they said
Eddie Howe, Bournemouth manager said, “I’m pleased with the performance. It was a very difficult game in tough conditions. We had a slight readjustment in our backline again with Simon Francis missing out and Jack Simpson playing left-back.”
“Those adjustments considered, I thought the players gave everything to won. It could have gone either way at the end. They had chances and we had chances. But we will take the point and try to build on it.”
“We didn’t quite know what to expect from Arsenal. We assumed the philosophy would change and I think it did. It was quite visible to see Arsenal playing in a slightly different way.”
“The system was different but we couldn’t plan for that. We had no idea really what they were going to do. We had to plan for us and make sure we were better than we were against Burnley and learn from that experience. And I think we did.”