Sanchez’s double leads Arsenal to 3-1 win over Bournemouth

Arial balls whipped in with good quality, plus clever runs from striker Callum Wilson stretched the back-line and put Arsene Wenger’s side under serious pressure.

“Even when he looks dead, he’s still alive and always finds the resources to do something special”, he said.

“He has that gut conditioning that, when the ball comes to him again, he always finds that extra gear to be unsafe”. We’ve had some very tough games. “He did not want to injure Arter”.

Sanchez finished what he started and sealed the game for Arsenal in the 90th minute after Olivier Giroud picked out the Chile worldwide in the six-yard box.

However, after making an encouraging start against the Black Cats, Debuchy’s latest comeback didn’t last long as he limped off after just 16 minutes with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.

On Giroud struggling at the end, he added, “With the hamstring”.

The win took Chelsea back above Liverpool and Manchester City, who welcome Conte’s side to the Etihad Stadium next weekend, but the Italian said it was far too early to think about the title. “I have to speak to the medical people”, Wenger said. You can only assess it after 48 hours.

Hackett argued Howe had reason to be aggrieved “over the grappling we saw in the penalty area”, though, saying: “Shkodran Mustafi could also count himself very fortunate after grabbing Bournemouth centre-back Steve Cook off the ball”.

‘It is important. How important it is, I don’t know.

“I thought we were very good today, it’s very hard when you go behind early in the game, but the group responded very well, with maturity”, Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said. “It is always hard when you go 1-0 down early on in the game, especially in that manner – an individual mistake”. With minutes to go, we’re thinking we can get a deserved equaliser.

Bournemouth still occasionally looked risky on the counterattack as they threatened to pull level once more and had a second penalty turned down despite the ball appearing to strike Monreal on the arm inside the box.

There are also little tricks they can do to keep the team’s spirits up in what promises to be a trying month.

Player ratingsArsenal: Petr Cech 7, Mathieu Debuchy 4, Laurent Koscielny 6, Shkodran Mustafi 6, Nacho Monreal 5, Granit Xhaka 6, Mohamed Elneny 7, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 6, Mesut Ozil 6, Theo Walcott 8, Alexis Sanchez 7. Unused subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Coquelin, Iwobi. Subs: Benik Afobe (for Wilson) 6, Jordan Ibe (for Stanislas) 5, Lys Mousset (for B Smith) 5.