Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was delighted with the attitude of his players as the Gunners fought back from a goal down to earn a draw against Bournemouth.
Despite heavy pressure coming from Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in the opening stages, the Cherries opened the scoring through Dan Gosling after a defensive mix up led to the Bournemouth midfielder firing home.
Arsenal had the hosts parked in their own half for much of the second 45 minutes, and were rewarded for their hard work when Aubameyang latched onto a loose ball to level the game.
Arteta was on the touchline for the first time since his appointment as new boss, following the sacking of Unai Emery, and was pleased with what he saw from his new group of players.
‘I am pleased with a lot of things that I have seen today, a lot of things we actually practiced that we saw in the game,’ Arteta told Amazon Prime Sport.
‘I would have been happy if we won the game. We had enough chances to put it to bed. But it’s a good start I think.’
Under Emery, Arsenal were prone to rolling over when the chips were down but their spirit in drab conditions on the south coast delighted the new boss.
‘In terms of attitude, desire, aggression and commitment, it was better than I expected to be fair. I’m still learning a lot about the players, how we can help them, but it’s just started.’
Arteta conceded that the lapse in concentration at the back, in which Bukayo Saka attempted to play the ball out from his own third but was dispossessed, is part of a learning process, and that defensive problems will be addressed in training.
‘We have some areas where you have to make certain decisions, it’s part of the process, when yes and when no,’ he said. ‘We try to put some things in place and the majority of them were good today.
‘My only target now is to review the game and find solutions from the game and tomorrow prepare a good training session to improve them. At the moment the urgency is now.’
