ALEX Scott says it was “important” for him personally to prove his worth again in the past week, and hopes he has given boss Andoni Iraola a “headache” when it comes to team selection.

Highly-rated Scott joined Cherries from Bristol City for an initial £20million last summer, but two knee injuries restricted him to just three appearances between August and mid-December.

Since, the midfielder has been in and out of the side, playing in a variety of roles, often finding himself second fiddle to the likes of in-form trio Lewis Cook, Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert.

But Scott has had his chance again recently, starting and impressing in wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion, ahead of a trip to leaders Arsenal on Saturday (12.30pm).

He has now made 24 appearances for Cherries in total, starting 14, scored two goals and provided four assists.

Reflecting on his first Premier League campaign, the 20-year-old told the Daily Echo: “I’m happy. Of course it could’ve gone better. Obviously two injuries didn’t help me at all.

“That was a stop-start beginning to my Premier League career.

“Then in and out of the team, which is always tough as a player and it’s something I’ve never really had before.

“I came in at Bristol City and played almost every game. That’s what my dad said to me as well, he said ‘you’ve never experienced this before, so you’re going to have to learn from it and keep going’.

“But I feel like it’s been a good season for myself and definitely with a full pre-season under my belt with this manager and the staff as well will put me in good stead for next season.”

Bournemouth Echo: Alex Scott hopes he can keep his place after impressing against Wolves and Brighton

He added: “It’s all about confidence really. The Wolves game was good, so to get the win there and then obviously another performance, two starts in a row, which is important for me and I’m happy for that.

“Hopefully we can go to Arsenal and that’s maybe given the manager a bit of a headache of who to play, which is always good.

“I think in this team as well, it’s always healthy competition, so that’s important going forward and into next season.”

Discussing the 3-0 victory over Brighton, Scott said: “It was a big win. I think we played very well, especially in the first half.

“That’s becoming a bit of a sequence for us recently.

“Maybe not putting away as many chances as we could do, but ultimately we got the win and in the second half we scored when we had to and that’s the most important thing.

“I feel like they didn’t have too many chances where they threatened us.

“They had a little period in the second half where they were definitely on top, but we held our own and I think the defence and Trav (Mark Travers) in goal were brilliant again.”

Bournemouth Echo: Alex Scott has started Cherries' past two fixtures

The England under-21 international added: “It was important that we got in their faces.

“We know how good a team they are. We’ve seen it in the past few years.

“On the ball, the way they play is very unique. Going into the game we watched a lot of clips from the Man City game the other day and saw that they get caught sometimes when they’re playing out from the back.

“We know how good our high press is when we get it right, so that was definitely something we looked at going into the game and felt that was a way we could hurt them.

“But I think we were on top. We had the fans right behind us, which was massive for us.

“We punished them when we had to. Going in 1-0 at the break and then obviously to get the two goals in the second half were massive and that killed the game off.”