Starting XI: Cech, Holding, Mustafi, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Gibbs, Alexis, Ozil, Welbeck
Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Bellerin, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud
Second half goals from Alexis Sanchez and substitute Olivier Giroud helped Arsenal to a 2-0 win against Southampton that takes them up to fifth place in the Premier League and closes the gap on the top four to three points.
Sanchez produced a moment of magic just before the hour mark to break the deadlock before Giroud headed in from close range with seven minutes remaining to secure the Gunners first Premier League win at Saint Mary’s since 2003.
First half
Southampton were much the brighter side in the opening stages mounting probing attacks down the left flank with Ryan Bertrand at the centre of the action. In the space of 7 minutes the England left-back fired a low cross to the near post, set-up Steven Davis with a near pull-back to the edge of the area and attempted a shot of his own on the volley.
Arsenal’s first effort of note came on 14 minutes as Aaron Ramsey snatched a chance after good work by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cutting in off the right flank. The Welshman had more time than he thought as he put the opportunity wide of Fraser Forster’s left post.
The Gunners were neat and tidy, but lacked a killer ball. Ozil and Ramsey’s movement continued to make room for the Ox who had an attempt of his own blocked and another run that ended in a cross being cleared. Unfortunately, a hamstring problem cut short his evening and he was subbed off for Hector Bellerin on 35 minutes.
Prior to the change the Saints had regained their composure and might have taken the lead. In quick succession Mustafi denied Dusan Tadic with a fine sliding challenge then Cech made a big stop as the rebound fell to Manolo Gabbiadini.
The Italian later fired a free-kick just wide after Jon Moss adjudged a perfectly good tackle by Mustafi five yards outside the Arsenal box to be a foul. It was a ridiculous decision that could have proved costly. Nathan Redmond also came close in the closing stages of the half testing Cech with a stinging drive that was destined for the top corner before the keeper palmed it away for a corner.
There was time for two more Arsenal efforts, a tame Mustafi header that fell straight to Forster and a cross by Bellerin that Welbeck couldn’t direct goalwards.
Second half
As was the case in the first half Arsenal continued to find greater joy attacking down the right flank. Bellerin’s cross, which may have been aimed at Alexis, was volleyed goalwards by Ramsey only for Welbeck to inadvertently deflect it wide.
Just before the hour mark, the Gunners broke the deadlock. And it was a fine goal by Alexis. It started with Xhaka’s pass into Ozil who, from the edge of the box, flicked the ball on first time to Alexis. The Chilean controlled, left two Saints defenders on their arse with a dummy and, with Forster to beat from eight yards, picked his spot to send the travelling support into raptures. It was the striker’s 25th goal of the season, the most he’s ever scored in a single campaign since his career began. (1-0)
As the game grew stretched the pace of Alexis and Bellerin continued to cause the home side problems, if only the Spaniard’s crossing was more accurate. A Xhaka drive from the edge of the box was fielded by Forster as the Gunners went in search of a second.
Southampton sent on Shane Long and Sofiane Boufal for Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse; the latter departing immediately after missing a header from close range. With 10 minutes left Olivier Giroud replaced Welbeck and Jay Rodriguez came on for Tadic as the managers continued to shuffle their respective packs.
Giroud’s first involvement was to extend Arsenal’s lead with his 96th goal for the club. Ozil rescued a ball near the touchline, played back to Alexis who, from the edge of the box, picked out Ramsey at the back post with a lofted ball. The Welshman’s cushioned header fell kindly to the Frenchman who couldn’t miss with his head from two yards out. It was a killer blow for Claude Puel’s men. (2-0)
The win keeps the Gunners Champions League qualification hopes alive but doesn’t change the fact we’ll need to win our three remaining games and hope for another side to slip up. It’s not impossible, we might just escape Thursday night football after all. Here’s hoping.
One moment of magic and one super sub and that’s all that matters.
Who is that Welsh guy playing in midfield for us?
Welsh Jesus, he’s back baby, yeah!
Icing on the cake : Moaning Maureen and his shitty team are back to their beloved 6th place, where they belong.
Maybe, just maybe, this universe is conspiring to keep us in the top 4. It’s the way it is supposed to be!
If we manage to pull off a win on Saturday, it’ll pile HUGE pressure on Liverpool on Sunday. They draw away at West Ham and it’ll be in our own hands.
One bogey team down, another one to go. Now, let’s go and fucking beat those orcs at Mordor. COYG !
What bogey team? Honestly, Stoke aren’t shit for us last few seasons.
It begs the question: why are we playing 2 tough away games with only 2 days rest in between? Liverpool have had almost a full week off.
I’m not saying its a conspiracy or anything, but jeez.
Because we had a good cup run!
Because we went a long way in the FA Cup and they didn’t. Also, today’s matched couldn’t have been played on Tuesday because we played on Sunday.
Every year the FA Cup finalists have to play make-up matches in the final two weeks of the season, it’s just the way it works. Although, next year may be kinder because UEFA has finally got rid of that stupid rule that top flight leagues couldn’t schedule matches on Champions League or Europa League game days.
Also because Southampton got to the League Cup Final (or whatever they call it now) and that was the week of our fixture so we got shunted. I think there was a point where everyone around us was playing and we weren’t.
Wasn’t it only televised top flight matches they didn’t allow?
Stoke will be extra hard considering they had a full week’s rest and they play at home, while this will be our 3rd match within a week.
Yay
My thoughts exactly. A bit dissapointed to hear the WengerOut chants after a win against one of our bogey teams, first since 2003. Cant we all just get behind the team and manager until the end of the season??
People should really get behind the team regardless …
I respect your opinions, but paying fans have the right to express their feelings about the club. We all know why people are unhappy.
We all know how we got into this situation and it wasn’t the fault of paying supporters.
Come on, the dude holding the Wenger out sign at the end of the game looked ridiculous.
What’s more ridiculous is Wenger saying he’d tell us his decision by the end of April.
Here’s a thought – maybe if he’d communicated his intentions then there would be fewer people trying to force the club’s hand by making fools of themselves?
And the negativity played no part in the on-field performances.
Okay then. ?
Our away fans have been amazing all season, and even at home the majority of fans get behind the team. Fan negativity had nothing to do with crucial defeats against Everton, City and Bayern. It’s just a terrible excuse.
He literally just wrote ‘yay’
my thoughts exactly.
I know right? People are too funny
🙂
Not the best performance, but happy to have the 3 points. Lets move onto Stoke this Saturday, get the 3 points there, and put Liverpool under some pressure who could easily drop points at West Ham on Sunday.
My gut feeling is that it might all come down to goal difference with liverpool. Expecting the scousers to easily win their final match against Middlesbrough, if ( and a big if ) the hammers somehow beat Liverpool on sunday and we win two and draw one, we’d both be on 73. So while keeping clean sheets ought to be our primary goal, it is equally important we score as many goals as we possibly can. I personally would take a 1-0 win on saturday but we must then beat Sunderland resoundingly at home. Though it is not in our… Read more »
How were we? I couldn’t watch due to shit streams. Ended up watching the Madrid game. Another great game ruined by the silly away goals rule. What is the point in it?
Still not convinced by Gibbs
How dare you! 🙂
which Paul are you?
I am the one that has been on here for ages and changed his name because a couple of people joined and also named themselves “Paul” .
So I had no individual identity anymore and I was seeing comments that looked like they were mine but they weren’t.
And yes I like Gibbs as does my wife. 🙂
2007 called. He wants his comment back.
What self respecting player with the quality of Gibbs will allow himself to be second fiddle for 7 years without moaning too much. He is the the best backup left sided player there is. We should be grateful we don’t have anot inexperienced 17 year olds anymore as backup.
I do understand the thought process behind being happy with Gibbs as backup for the above reasons. However, I think it’s actually an incredibly negative thing – To have a player with such a lack of ambition and belief is detrimental to the squad (from a competition for positions perspective) and the team itself, should he play. That a player is satisfied to do so little, have such an incredible lack of quality and responsibility on the ball, and think it’s good enough for Arsenal football club, is exactly why the club finds itself in such an awful predicament. I… Read more »
Missed the goal line clearance against WBA that secured CL football a couple of seasons back? Scored against Spurs that same year to.
No I remember them both well, important block and goal. Ones that any distinctly average footballer could have made in a career spanning 133 games thus far.
truth is no worldclas player is gonna be happy sitting in that bench while waiting for the first choice left back to be injured to play. gibbs is solid if not spectacular backup once we buy a good left back , we need players like them who are solid enough to a backup and who are loyal to the club so that they wont cry everytime they are benched and gibbs is perfect for this role . i cant see any other premier league teams other than city who have 2 solid players who can play as left back .… Read more »
My god it will paper over some gigantic cracks at our club but if we somehow pull it off we can hopefully use it to recruit well (with the pull of CL) and keep players.
Not when the crack is as big as the red sea, so don’t worry matey.
Hope Giroud gets his century before this season ends
Five wins in the last seven. We march on…proud to be a Gooner.
Hal Robson Sanchez
How dare you mention that fake Kanu?
I thought he was Welsh son of Kanu
3 points, full stop.
Sanchez’s hand-to-the-badge/heart gesture after scoring needs thorough analysis and speculation as to the real meaning…da da daaaa!
Top 4 may still happen fingers crossed, Get In Lads!
Great result. If I remember correctly, we have also never lost a match in this jersey.
Correct.
Blue: 6 – 0 – 0 (all with yellow socks, 4 with blue shorts, 2 with yellow shorts)
Red: 18 – 5 – 6 (all with white shorts, red socks)
Yellow: 7 – 3 – 6 (all with gray shorts, yellow socks)
I knew that yellow kit with the ugly grey shorts was a mistake as soon as I first saw it
That is an absolutely stunning bit of analysis, thank you!
impressive stats, honestly.
I love it when we win. We should do it more often.
Why are we scrapping away like this???
Wenger out!
Damn, Sanchez should play as our main striker with that kind of finish.
Damn straight
I don’t know if you noticed, but in 2nd half there was little tweak in the tactic and alexis played the 2nd half as second striker or at times as a striker with welbz stretching them out. Brilliant goal, hope tapping the badge( did you saw that) means he will stay and sign new contract.
If only we won one against wba or palace, then probably would lose this one, ok now hope that we win against stoke as this 3-5-2 works against teams that we didn’t win a game away for ages.
Shane Long is a fucking cheating pig.
Alexis, I know I criticized you many times but it’s because I want you to get better and better.
Please sign and finish your career at Arsenal.
Good win. Gibbs and Bellerin were poor technically and tactically. They look incapable of crossing/taking people on or going for the tackle while defending.
It just looked like they were occupying space.
Monreal and Holding were carrying them.
I know you hate to be too pro Ramsey, Arseblog,(because you are aware that persons on this forum think he is your love child) but his “cushioned header fell kindly”, shud read, “his brilliantly weighted header meant that Giroud couldnt miss”.
Rambo, I can admit openly, that hes improving into the fine player he threatened to be a few seasons ago…….BRAVO!!!
His brilliantly weighted header ?
Couldn’t agree more, a clever header executed well
Absolutely right–that was a pass to Giroud.
Cech looking near to his best in the last couple of games! Great save from the Redmond shot
A few of the lads were guilty of over playing at times but we did it in the end. Over the moon with yet another clean sheet!
The fixture congestion is seriously worrying me, especially as the usual suspects are getting inured at the wrong time again (at least that’s something consistent). We really need to scrap 1-0 wins and conserve energy.
Actually I thought we did a really good job of controlling the tempo against both Man Ure and Southampton. The three at the back formation allows us more time to get our shape when the opponents break. Every time we’ve used it we’ve looked more comfortable in it, and I think it’s doing exactly that job you want of conserving some of our energy.
@arseblog – something I would pay you a monthly subscription for are links to solid live streams for each game. The quality of the video for those goals above are excellent. If there were live stream links for each game of that quality, you could charge what you want IMO
That would be a really bad idea. Linking to streams might get Blogs shut down. So many linking sites sites just disappear.
Charging for access would be worse.
Not commenting about right or wrong here; just how it is
Mobdro, if UK channels don’t work there’s always a stream, even if it’s in foreign language, but US channels come through…
Santa all I want for Christmas is for rob holding to be left in the arsenal team..could be just me but I REALLY like the look of this guy..perhaps a little too late but every time he plays he plays well and we generally win..I like arsenal winning
An unhappy shane long makes me happy
The top 4 is still a chance. Of course manc and pool need to stuff up. But still.
Giroud was almost a full six yards out.
#Innacurate
Our last 5 matches have been 0-0 at half-time (in fact, 8 times altogether since Christmas). Of those, we lost only at WHL; the others were all won in the second half.
Make of that what you will 🙂
Another jinx annuled. If only those jinxies were gone long ago. Great result, keep it going!
As usual we as fans of one of the world’s richest clubs are just ok with another unconvincing win against a poor side, and will all be happy with a possible top 4 place. We are also to blame if we get more of the same mediocrity next season with Wenger..