Arsenal have moved above Manchester City into third in the Premier League table courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this evening.
The Gunners were without a win in four league games going into the match, and without a goal in three, but a quickfire double in the first half was enough to see them end that run and close the gap on leaders Leicester City back to five points.
The match took a while to get going, with Alexis Sanchez firing a volley off target with the only real sight of goal in the opening stages, but it soon came to life as Arsenal struck twice in as many minutes to take control of the contest.
The first came midway through the half when Olivier Giroud nodded a cross back down for Mesut Ozil, who controlled his half-volley well to slam the ball past Artur Boruc from inside the penalty area.
It was Arsenal's first league goal for more than five hours, but it took less than 90 seconds for another to arrive as the Gunners quickly won the ball back before working it out to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain down the right channel, who drove a low strike in off the far post.
Bournemouth responded well to the quickfire double and almost pulled a goal back within minutes when Harry Arter's swerving strike was diverted over the top by the fingertips of Petr Cech.
Marc Pugh then stole away from Gabriel Paulista to find himself one on one with Cech, but he took too long over his finish, allowing Hector Bellerin to get back and make a vital challenge inside the area.
The Cherries continued to push for a goal back when Matt Ritchie sent a shot well off target after the ball had dropped invitingly for him, while right at the end of the half Cech was called upon once more to thwart Adam Smith, who had stolen in behind Nacho Monreal.
Bournemouth picked up where they left off at the start of the second half by applying early pressure on the Arsenal defence, with Ritchie and Smith among those to miss the target during the hosts' period on top.
They were given a warning on the break 10 minutes after the restart, however, as Sanchez forced a low stop from Boruc before Giroud planted a header from the resulting corner straight at the keeper.
Ritchie sent another long-range effort into the stands shortly after the hour mark, but Bournemouth's threat soon dried up and they struggled to create anything else of note until the closing stages of the match.
In the final five minutes Josh King failed to connect with one Junior Stanislas cross into the middle before drawing a routine stop from Cech with a volley, but the Arsenal keeper's work was not done for the afternoon.
Moments after Boruc had kept out Aaron Ramsey at one end, Cech was forced into a late double save to keep his clean sheet intact, denying Steve Cook and Arter after the Gunners had failed to deal with a corner.
There was to be no consolation for Bournemouth, however, as they remain 15th in the table, five points clear of the bottom three, while Arsenal move level with North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
