Arter penalty woe as Bournemouth draw at Southampton

A late missed penalty from Harry Arter cost Bournemouth victory as they drew 0-0 at Southampton.

Arter struck well over the crossbar when he could have secured all three points.

The draw leaves Bournemouth 11th in the Premier League and level on 34 points with their 10th-placed rivals, who have two games in hand. They are now seven points clear of the bottom three.

Following a week in which Southampton's Dusan Tadic had complained about the frequency with which Claude Puel substitutes him, the midfielder was gifted the game's first chance.

He found himself with time and space to run on the edge of the area in the fourth minute but sent his left-footed shot high and wide.

Bournemouth's Dan Gosling shot over from similar territory in the 29th minute after goalkeeper Fraser Forster's unconvincing punch.

Shortly afterwards, Southampton's Steven Davis was forced into clearing off the line after Andrew Surman touched Ryan Fraser's right-wing corner beyond Forster, and from that point each team provided regular threat.

Promising build-up play on the right wing between James Ward-Prowse and Cedric created space for the latter to cross to Tadic and, after Jay Rodriguez had dummied, the midfielder curled wide of the left post.

Tadic then played a classy ball over the top of the Bournemouth defence towards Rodriguez, whose shot was tipped away by the diving Artur Boruc.

In the 61st minute, the visitors' in-form Joshua King played Benik Afobe through, but despite time and space he shot inches wide.

Nathan Redmond responded by running through midfield and testing Boruc with a long-range strike, with Ward-Prowse sending the rebound wide as a goal continued to elude Southampton.

Puel responded by replacing Rodriguez and Ward-Prowse with Sofiane Boufal and Shane Long almost immediately afterwards, and the latter soon shot just wide after another Tadic through-ball.

Bournemouth replaced King with Jack Wilshere before striking the post when Adam Smith's shot from the edge of the area took a deflection off Ryan Bertrand.

In the 78th minute, Bertrand seemed unfortunate to be penalised when referee Jonathan Moss awarded the visitors a penalty when Fraser went down in the area after slight contact off the ball.

The stage was set for a Bournemouth victory but Arter -- much like David Beckham for England against Portugal at Euro 2004 -- instead shot embarrassingly over the crossbar.