TERRACE TALK: Arsenal - Bournemouth perfect opposition after St Mary’s mauling

Driving back to London, after enduring an infuriating “wonder why on earth we bothered” rout on the South Coast, we were debating the limited options available to Arsene to freshen things up for our date with the Cherries less than 48 hours later.

As it turned out, in introducing the likes of Gibbs, Gabriel, Chambers and the Ox to the starting XI, Wenger made the very best of a bad job.

I had assumed that the vast majority of those involved in such a lamentable display against Southampton, would be required to lift themselves off the floor to play against Bournemouth.