Arsenal beat Bournemouth with quickfire double to stay in touch

Arsenal gave a vital boost to their Premier League title hopes as two goals in two minutes gave them a 2-0 win at Bournemouth.

Mathieu Flamini should have been sent off for a two-footed challenge in the opening minutes. Then, Arsenal scored twice in two minutes, the first from Mesut Ozil's excellent volley, and then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got his first league goal in 18 months.

The three points allowed Arsenal to regain third place, having been leapfrogged by Spurs and Manchester City in recent weeks, and cut the distance between them and Leicester City to five points.

Arsenal again got lenient treatment from Kevin Friend in the second half, and duly were able to keep a clean sheet to take them back up the league table.

8' - FLAMINI YELLOW - Gosling is fouled by Flamini, who slides in, studs up. The challenge looks bad, but it was not really the worst of those kind of fouls, but he probably should have been sent off.

23' - GOAL! Bournemouth 0-1 Arsenal. Ozil scores - Arsenal watch as Bournemouth sit back and wait. Ramsey chips a cross to the back post, Giroud wins it well to play it back into the path of Ozil, and he leathers it past Boruc with an excellently controlled volley.

24' - GOAL! Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal. Oxlade-Chamberlain scores - Cook gives the ball away in defence. Ramsey slips in Oxlade-Chamberlain to the right, and he drills a shot against the far post and in.

27' - ARTER SHOT - Arter sees off two markers, drives towards the box, and from the corner of the area he forces Cech into a fingertip save over the bar.

51' - SMITH SHOT - Smith is played in by Gosling on the right. He turns Koscielny at the near post, but his shot hits the side netting. A close call for Arsenal.

90' - CECH DOUBLE SAVE - Stanislas gains a corner on the right. It's worked to Smith, whose cross is knocked down across goal. Cook smashes a shot at point-blank range, but it's straight at Cech. It comes out to Arter, and his shot is drilled at the near post, and Cech saves again.

Petr Cech (Arsenal): In the second half, the away side collapsed, and lost their composure. They were never in a great deal of trouble because of the advantage earned in the first half, but Cech's saves in the first half, and an excellent double save in injury time, meant he was the one player to emerge with credit from the whole game.

Bournemouth: Boruc 6, Smith 7, Francis 6, Cook 6, Daniels 6, Surman 6, Gosling 5, Arter 6, Ritchie 5, Pugh 6, Afobe 5. Subs: King 6, Grabban 6, Stanislas 5.

Arsenal: Cech 7, Bellerin 6, Monreal 6, Koscielny 5, Gabriel 6, Ramsey 6, Flamini 5, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6, Sanchez 6, Ozil 7, Giroud 6. Subs: Gibbs 6, Walcott 6, Coquelin 6.

Arsenal had gone more than five hours in the league without scoring before breaking their duck today.

Bournemouth are still without a win against Arsenal in their history (three matches).

Should Kevin Friend have sent off Mathieu Flamini? Arsenal took the chances as they were given to them, but at least two of them were gifts from the referee. His decision not to send off Flamini for a reckless, studs-up, two-footed tackle was compounded when he chose not to book Olivier Giroud for his own nasty challenge, and then not to give a penalty after Laurent Koscielny handled in the box. Each decision may have been individually justifiable, barely, but Bournemouth were badly treated.