Evening, everyone, and welcome along to live coverage of Arsenal’s trip to Bournemouth. This is only the fifth ever meeting between these two sides, one where a win for the visitors would take them back to third in the Premier League.

Francis is penalised for a foul throw mid-way inside Arsenal's half. Oh dear.

Bournemouth work a short corner to Stanislas who, from a central position 25 yards out, hits a fierce shot straight at Cech who catches the ball.

Bournemouth put together a nice move down the right but Stanislas chooses go pass to Francis rather than cross himself and the former's cross doesn't beat the first man.

King has the game's first shot but he drags his 25-yard effort wide of the far post.

Ramsey looks to be playing as the central attacking midfielder, with Iwobi on the right and Sanchez the left.

Bellerin puts in a firm cross which Ake stooops to head clear from inside his six yard box.

Arter looks to put in an early cross but gets his angles wrong and Cech collects comfortably.

Bournemouth, with the permission of referee Michael Oliver, get the game underway.

The two sets of players are out at the Vitality Stadium. Will Arsenal suffer a third successive away defeat? We're about to start finding out.

Decent.

Wenger meanwhile has said that Bournemouth's "high level of energy" will make them tough opponents, and that "that demands a complete focus defensively." Good job he's got his first-choice central defensive pairing playing then.

"I think we have to get our off-the-ball patterns right. We have to make it difficult for them to play their normal game," Howe has just told the TV cameras.

The home side have had an extra day’s rest before this game and the difference in scheduling hasn’t gone unnoticed by Wenger, who described the discrepancy as "absolutely unbelievable”. You would imagine Chelsea’s rest between fixtures has also irked "Every game is so difficult in this Premier League that we go now into a game in 48 hours' time with a big handicap."

With kick-off 20 minutes away, here's a reminder of the two line-ups. AFC BOURNEMOUTH: Boruc, Francis, Cook, Ake, Daniels, Arter, Gosling, Stanislas, Fraser, King, Wilson. Subs: Federici, Mings, A. Smith, B. Smith, Surman, Ibe, Mousset. /// ARSENAL: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Sanchez, Giroud. Subs: Ospina, Maitland-Niles, Gabriel, Holding, Reine-Adelaide, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Perez.

The two men who scored in Arsenal's win here last season - Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - aren't starting today however.

One thing we can expect is goals. The Cherries have only once drawn a blank at home this season, while Arsenal have never scored fewer than two against tonight's opposition.

If you want to admonish me for my views on Giroud's goal, or have any predictions or thoughts on the match, feel free to tweet me @TacoAli.

Of course much of the talk pre-match has been about that Olivier Giroud goal. Arsene Wenger described it as "art" but the striker himself was rather modest about the whole thing and I'd be inclined to agree with him. Because it was so unusual it stands out, but I'd take a sweetly-struck bicycle kick, for example, over an instinctive flick.

Eddie Howe will certainly be hoping so. "The aim for the New Year is to move the club forward into new waters," he said after beating lowly Swansea 3-0, and a marquee result against a club some have suggested he could one day manage would certainly fit that bill.

As previously mentioned, these two clubs have only met four times before and Arsenal have won on all of those occasions. The Cherries did show signs of improvement in the reverse fixture in November, scoring against Arsenal for the first time, so can today be the first time they take points off them?