Arteta said: "I never expected it (to be). I thought that we started the game, probably the best first half we've played all season. We were unbelievable, everything, flowing, super composed on the ball, really aggressive without the ball. We generated so many chances, we could have gone three, four, five (up) easily and we didn't. We scored one.
"Credit to Bournemouth, they changed a few things and created some issues. The game became a little bit more open, something we wanted to avoid. Within that game we resolved certain situations in the right way and we were very efficient in front of goal to score the goals and maintain another clean sheet.
"Because we were 1-0 and with the quality of opponents we play you have to navigate through those moments. We knew that. If you score two, three, four in the first half it's a different game. We didn't so if you don't you'd better be so good at managing those moments.
He added, "If we spend money we'd better do it wisely and in the most effective way! We're really happy with the recruitment that we had. It had a big impact in the team, it has raised not only the level of the team but the level of the rest of the players as well. You see today we had some big performances from a lot of individuals. If we want to be at that stage you need that."