Arsenal climbs to 3rd in league by beating Bournemouth

But it was the home side who suffered the first cuts of the match when Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in quick succession to end an Arsenal goal drought that had lasted 328 minutes.

But manager Arsene Wenger could be satisfied with the way his side showed signs of the form that took them to the league summit at the turn of the year, with Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first league goal of the season a welcome bonus. A crucial victory behind a strong performance from Ozil put Arsenal in close distance with Leicester along side Manchester City in the Premier League title race. “We have a big game against (Leicester) next week so I’m sure that’ll be one that everyone will be interested in seeing, so let’s hope we can keep this winning run that we’re on”.

Speaking on Sky Sports on Sunday, he said: ‘If I had said to you that Chelsea would struggle, Manchester City would struggle, you would have thought that it would be a season that Arsenal would walk away with it easily. That means that they suddenly become the favourite to win the Premier League. We had to win.

Everyone concerned with Arsenal will be happy and relieved tonight because we desperately needed to stop the rot. “I agree Leicester now is the favourite”. They controlled the game with early possession before catching Bournemouth with a pair of swift strikes which rendered the contest a foregone conclusion.

It was their first league win since Jan 2, since when they had played two goalless draws and lost 1-0 to Chelsea.

Arsenal may have scored four times in their last four games, but three of those came in a thriller against Liverpool a couple games ago.

Ozil again impressed, capping a fine all-round display with a goal. “It’s normal”, Wenger said when asked if the whole country was behind Leicester.

Howe has worked his way into the top flight with Bournemouth and Wenger says a future job at a top four club is a possibility. When they do not manage to play for us, if they do it somewhere else we are of course very happy for them. That kind of tackle has been outlawed. I was surprised when referee only produced a yellow.

“I didn’t see it like that, honestly I felt even at the start it was free-kick for us”, said the Frenchman.

He added: “I don’t think we looked out of sorts by any stretch”.