Arter reflects on Bournemouth’s progress over past year
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago Bournemouth were routed 5-1 by Tottenham at Vitality Stadium and Harry Arter believes last weekend’s creditable draw is symptomatic of how far the Cherries have come since.
A Harry Kane hat-trick did the brunt of the damage in October 2015 but this time around, Bournemouth defended valiantly to stop anyone in a Spurs shirt from scoring as the game finished 0-0.
Spurs were something of a bogey team for Eddie Howe’s men last term as they also recorded a 3-0 victory at White Hart Lane and Arter admits it was night and day compared to Saturday’s display.
“Look how we played against them last year – we got turned over pretty easily in both games,” said the midfielder.
“We had to change our mindset against them. It’s not easy to do that because we had bad results (against Tottenham) and the performances last year made it pretty easy for them.
“We had to change something and credit to everyone because we worked as hard as we possibly could. On another day we could have nicked a goal at the end.”
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Spurs are still unbeaten in the Premier League this season, with five wins and four draws from nine games, while also in position to qualify from their Champions League group.
The Londoners may have a more star-studded squad than their south-coast opponents but Arter has revealed that tirelessly working when not in possession is what paid dividends for the Cherries.
“I felt that if we were going to get anything from the game then it was going to be down to how hard we worked off the ball,” added Arter.
“One of Tottenham’s biggest strengths is their work-rate, so we had to match them – and probably do better than them in that sense. I felt we did and fully deserved our point.
“They have quality players and if you just let them have the ball they can hurt you.
“So the manager wanted me and the rest of the players to be on the front foot and not let them settle on the ball. That’s what we tried to do.”
