Arsenal vs. Bournemouth ends 3-3 with Olivier Giroud scoring the stoppage-time equalizer

Arsenal and Bournemouth played one of the most entertaining games of the Premier League season on Tuesday, with the Gunners coming from three goals down to snag a 3-3 draw. It featured a dramatic stoppage-time goal from Olivier Giroud, but the result is likely to leave both teams deeply unsatisfied.

The two early goals that Bournemouth scored were down to a simple lack of concentration from Arsenal. Hector Bellerin was completely out of position on the opener by Charlie Daniels, and Granit Xhaka had no reason to hack down Ryan Fraser in the penalty box just two minutes later. Callum Wilson converted from the spot, putting the Cherries up 2-0.

After Bournemouth’s second goal, Arsenal appeared to be crumbling.

They went into halftime looking hopeless, with no shots on target, and their second half didn’t start any better. Fraser scored the Cherries’ third in particularly impressive fashion.

In many games, this is the goal that buries the conceding team, both due to the margin of the lead that Bournemouth opened up and the manner in which they scored. It’s hard for any team — even one with Arsenal’s talent — to score three times in 20 minutes against a decent opponent. And the demoralizing nature of Fraser absolutely bulldozing Bellerin, one of the best young defenders in the world, was a special kind of gut punch.

Arsenal didn’t start playing better immediately after Bournemouth’s goal. The thing that got them fired up might have been their own fans singing “this is embarrassing” from the away end, loud enough for the players to hear them clearly. Not long after that tune broke out, Alexis Sanchez scored with Arsenal’s first shot on target, and the game was played almost exclusively in the Bournemouth half after that.

With their clean sheet gone, the Cherries fell apart completely. Lucas Perez scored in the 75th minute to bring the deficit down to one goal, then Bournemouth captain Simon Francis was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle seven minutes later. Bournemouth held on until stoppage time, but Arsenal always looked like scoring, and in the 92nd minute, Giroud did.

It was Bournemouth who had the better chance to find a winner, with Harry Arter forcing Petr Cech into a 94th-minute save. Bournemouth couldn’t win the points back, while Arsenal couldn’t push for a winner despite having their opponents on the ropes.

And so an incredible spectacle for neutral fans had to end with two teams that were equally disappointed. Bournemouth fans will be wondering how their team choked away a 3-0 lead. Arsenal fans will be wondering how they played so poorly for 70 minutes, leading to two crucial dropped points.