Arsene Wenger: 'Arsenal refused to lose against Bournemouth'

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has praised his side's resilience after they rescued a draw from the jaws of defeat against Bournemouth this evening.

The Gunners trailed by three goals heading into the final 20 minutes at the Vitality Stadium but still managed to salvage a point courtesy of late strikes from Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Olivier Giroud.

Wenger admitted that he would not have been happy with a draw before the match, but believes that it is a satisfactory result under the circumstances.

"They started much faster and with 20 minutes to go we were 3-0 down so that's a mental test. We refused to lose the game. Bournemouth deserve a lot of credit but the disadvantage is too big to play against a team with three and a half days' recovery. That's too big a handicap. But they are a good team with quality and they played with pace," he told reporters.

"We had some players at half time who had problems. I changed it early in the second half and I believe we refused to lose. There's a great resilience in the team and we saw that today.

"We dropped two points but we have to do better in the other games and hope other teams will drop points. It was not a result we wanted before the game but at 3-0 down we'd have signed for 3-3. We were unlucky in some decisions tonight."

The result means that Arsenal could find themselves 11 points behind Chelsea should the league leaders beat Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, while a Spurs victory would see Wenger's side drop out of the top four.