RYAN Christie was delighted to get on the end of a set piece routine that was masterminded by the Cherries coaching staff to break open the deadlock against Arsenal.

The Scot was a second half substitute against the Gunners, coming on while the game stood at 0-0, with the visitors down to ten men.

But he scored his first league goal since October 2022 to open the scoring, striking wonderfully home from a neat corner routine.

Lewis Cook took the set piece on the left, it was drilled low into the box and was flicked on by Justin Kluivert, before being smashed into the top corner by Christie.

(Image: Richard Crease) Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the 29-year-old said he was delighted to score.

“It's been a while, to be honest, so I was due one,” he said.

“Obviously nice for the team, from a worked set piece, the subs involved coming on and knowing their job.

“Credit to Shaun Cooper, [he] does our set pieces and delighted for him that one of them eventually came off and luckily enough it was me on the end of it.”

Christie said there were a lot of moving cogs for the set piece to come off, and that it was a brilliant flick from Justin Kluivert to set him up perfectly for the finish.

“A few boys are trying to claim it was straight off my shin guard, but I'm not having that,” Christie said.

“So, happy enough. Like I said, as soon as Justin got the flick right, I think trying keep it down as much as I can with the bubbling ball and then obviously to get the second goal from the penalty, it calmed us down a bit and let us control the game and see it out.”

(Image: Richard Crease) The midfielder said he hopes to add a few more goals to his tally before the end of the season, but stressed the importance of the three points against a strong Arsenal side.

On the game as a whole, Christie said: “To be fair to the boys, up until halftime and just after we did well to kind of keep our patience, you know, didn't go crazy, kept feeding the wide players, trying to keep Arsenal in their half as much as we can and eventually broke the deadlock, which was nice.”

He added that the result is a ‘massive’ victory.

“We've got to fancy ourselves, no matter who comes here when we're playing at home, we want to take the game to them,” Christie said.

“Obviously, the red card is a massive turning point in the game and probably gives us a bit of a foothold, but after the frustrating defeat to Leicester before the international break.

“We've got a tough run of fixtures, so amazing way to start. Obviously, another tough game away to Villa next week, but a brilliant game to take quite a lot of confidence to moving forward.”