Bees draw sting out of Bruce’s Villa boys
is doing and trying to achieve and you can’t get higher praise than that.”
The Cherries are a side you like to watch, but they rarely thrill.
They looked good going forward, mixing it well in midfield but relying more on the mistakes of opposing defenders rather than creating chances for themselves.
This is going to be a tough winter for them.
Wenger used his programme notes to admit he made mistakes over events in the last few weeks, where transfers – in and out of the club – have gone wrong.
But he also used them as a personal love letter to his team saying: “Sport is sport and I must say I love my players, I believe in my players and we have a good opportunity to show we have the quality that people want from us”.
Not quite Romeo and Juliet but as love-ins go it was nice.
Arsenal were as ruthless as Bournemouth were ineffectual – they are a side in freefall.
The spotlight in the build-up to this weekend has been on De Boer at Palace and Hammers boss Bilic because they had lost their three opening games.
Bournemouth had sneaked under the radar but they had also failed in their opening matches.
Being outside of London does have its advantages.
Like both Palace and West Ham, Howe has spent big on players.
Bournemouth went into the game having not beaten Arsenal in any competition where they have crossed swords, the nearest they have come to success being last season, when they let a three-goal lead slip to draw 3-3 at the Vitality Stadium.
Yesterday, Arsenal took the lead in the sixth minute when Aaron Ramsey, seizing on to iron-man defender Kolasinac’s pass, crossed and Welbeck turned in via his shoulder and ear.
Six minutes later, Granit Xhaka had Begovic palming out a 25-yard stinger as Arsenal relentlessly surged forward from all positions.
Then Asmir Begovic provided similar heroics five minutes later, diving to his right to keep out Mesut Ozil’s crafted free-kick from 20 yards.
But Arsenal were not to be denied. Welbeck again was involved when he supplied Lacazette with the perfect pass for the French striker to fire home from 20 yards as their second goal arrived in the 27th minute.
Then, a minute after Cherries striker Jermain Defoe headed on to a post after the interval, Arsenal added their third.
Lacazette won the ball in midfield, it bounced to Ramsey, who steamed into Bournemouth’s defence before slipping a pass for Welbeck to score in the 50th minute.
Howe was furious following his side’s fourth successive defeat.
He said: “This was a big disappointment. A poor performance from start to finish and I can’t hide away from that fact.
“We were poor in so many aspects. We only reacted to the reaction.” BATTLING Brentford produced an excellent performance to collect a valuable away point from a draw with Aston Villa.
The Bees have never won at Villa Park – they have made six visits and this was their fourth draw, a fine showing in view of their winless early season form.
Steve Bruce’s Villa had been seeking only their second win of the season and this latest display did little to mark them out as serious promotion contenders.
There was a somewhat mediocre first-half showing from Villa which carried on after the break.
Keinan Davies, who had a tremendous debut against Norwich, was anonymous on this occasion.
The reason being that Brentford’s skipper John Egan refused to stand on ceremony facing the youngster and as a result Villa’s attack was somewhat blunted.
Their best opportunity to snatch an early lead fell to young Josh Onomah.
But the on-loan player from Tottenham screwed his shot wide following a low cross from Andre Green.
Brentford, to their credit, engineered several promising attacks.
Ryan Woods was usually involved with some astute passes in particular out to the right bringing Sergi Canos into the game on his first appearance of the season.
Unfortunately Canos was forced to limp off in the 30th minute when he got involved in a tangled tackle on Green.
Ominously there was some sloppy defensive play by Villa and Neal Maupay had a couple of real chances to open Brentford’s account only to fluff both openings.
Bruce said: “It was very frustrating and I’m thankful to take a point. Sam Johnstone earned his spurs.
“I was conscious of the fact, and I do not want to make excuses, that practically the whole team have been away on international duty.”
Brentford boss Dean Smith said: “It was a good point but we should have collected three. We created three big chances but Sam Johnstone kept us at bay.”