Arsenal kicked off their US tour by beating Bournemouth on penalties after the two sides drew in Los Angeles.

Fabio Vieira opened the scoring for the Gunners midway through the first-half, but a deflected strike from Antoine Semenyo drew Bournemouth level after the break.

Both sides had chances to win it, with Cherries striker Dominic Solanke having an effort turned onto the bar and Leandro Trossard going close for Arsenal.

Whatever the result, the game was always due to go to penalties and Arsenal held their nerve to win the shootout 5-4, with goalkeeper Karl Hein the hero after making two saves.

Arteta has taken 12 academy players on this tour to the US and a number of them were handed a chance to shine against Bournemouth.

Ayden Heaven started in the heart of defence and Myles Lewis-Skelly was at left-back, while ahead of them Ethan Nwaneri and Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand were alongside Thomas Partey in midfield.

It was one of Arsenal’s more senior players, however, who gave them the lead as Vieira struck 18 minutes into the match.

Reiss Nelson burst past his opposite man on the left flank and dinked a cross to the back post, which found Vieira.

The midfielder, who was playing out on the right wing, made no mistake and fired home with an emphatic volley.

Arsenal were enjoying more of the possession and looked threatening going forward, with Nwaneri catching the eye.

Bournemouth were proving dangerous too, though, and Gunners goalkeeper Hein made a brilliant save to tip Solanke’s effort onto the bar just after the half-hour mark.

The Cherries also had a shout for a penalty waved away, with the ball striking Myles Lewis-Skelly’s arm after a cross made it all the way to the back post.

Arsenal looked the better side in the first-half, but Bournemouth came back into after the break and deservedly levelled the game.

A mistake from Omar Rekik allowed Semenyo to race into the box and his strike took a deflection off Ben White to loop over Hein.

It was harsh on the goalkeeper, who minutes earlier had made a fine save to keep out Dango Ouattara after Rekik had slipped at the vital moment.

Semenyo’s goal with around 20 minutes to go sparked Arsenal into life and Trossard came closest to an equaliser, but Neto got down low to deny him.

As they did throughout pre-season last year, Arsenal finished the match by having a penalty shootout and the Gunners came out victorious.

Hein made two saves to deny Philip Billing and Ryan Christie, which allowed Jakub Kiwior to score the winning penalty.