Arsenal 1 Bournemouth 0: David Luiz heads early winner as Gunners edge into third place

DAVID LUIZ scored his first Arsenal goal to help his new team stumble to third in the Premier League.

The former Chelsea defender’s ninth minute header was enough to see of a Bournemouth team who improved in the second half of a forgettable contest in north London.

For the third game in a row, Mesut Ozil was not even on the bench for Arsenal.

And while they were the better team in the first half, Unai Emery’s side could have done with some creativity in the second half as they barely created anything and in the end, were left hanging on.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had scored in his of his last six Sunday matches – managing eight in total – and initially seemed on a mission to score another.

He sent an effort curling wide of Aaron Ramsdale’s post but that would prove to be only one of two attempts of a disappointing game for a player hoping to score his 50th goal for Arsenal.

Arsenal looked set to score a few when Luiz timed his run to perfection, completely losing marker Callum Wilson, to deliver a glancing header from Nicholas Pepe’s corner.

Pepe sent a shot dipping over the bar and then felt he should have been given a penalty following a tackle from Diego Rico but VAR ruled in favour of the Bournemouth defender.

Eddie Howe’s side did more in the opening 90 seconds of the second period than all of the first half but still failed to test Bernd Leno.

And in the 50th minute, Callum Wilson danced through the home defence – including Luiz – and rounded Leno but failed to score and Chambers stuck out a leg to clear.

Arsenal were given another scare but Leno did well to tip over Jack Stacey’s shot.

For the rest of the game, very little happened but Matteo Guendouzi delivered a massively-important tackle to block a shot from Josh King.

In injury-time, Aubameyang hit the post but he did look offside.