Arsenal certainly made life difficult for themselves on Tuesday night at the Vitality Stadium against Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth team. The Gunners were playing their second game in 3 days after only having a day to recover after their win over Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day. Bournemouth on the other hand had last played on New Year’s Eve so were certainly the more rested side and it certainly looked that way as the Cherries looked very solid in sticking 3 goals past Petr Cech to lead 3-0 with only 20 minutes remaining in the game.

Once again it was down to a man-of-the-match performance from French striker Olivier Giroud to rescue the Gunners. Giroud set-up goals for both his fellow forwards in Alexis Sanchez and Lucas Perez before guiding a perfect header into the corner of the Bournemouth goal to tie the match at 3-3 in the 92nd minute of the game. At 3-0 down the game looked long gone for Arsenal but their impressive comeback earned them a point which could end up being very important at the end of the season when all is said and done.

Giroud can do no wrong at the moment and is well worth his place in the side after a slow start to the campaign and is definitely complementing Alexis Sanchez very well. Arsene Wenger was happy with the spirit his team showed to come back but was frustrated with the schedule his club have faced and had this to say after the match as reported by the BBC:

“At the start we suffered from the quality of Bournemouth. One team had over three days to recover and on top of that we suffered at the back.

“It was a physical test but we came back into the game and we showed we are mentally strong. I am happy to play every day but only if our opponent has done the same.”

So Arsenal move on to play Preston North End on the weekend in the FA Cup third round and Arsene Wenger will be hoping for a chance to give his key men a rest but knowing the FA Cup he is unlikely to get an easy ride at Deepdale as Preston will be looking to upset the Gunners.