If this is Olivier Giroud’s last goal for Arsenal, at least it will be one this sweet. Giroud scored an equaliser in the penultimate minute here at St Mary’s, rescuing a point that never looked on the cards.
Arsenal had been behind for 86 whole minutes but for all their domination of possession they had hardly ever come close to scoring. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil were far from their best, Alexandre Lacazette shut out of the game and Southampton, in fact, had been closing to going 2-0 up.
They were seconds away from victory here, and it would have been utterly deserved for a tactical masterclass: Saints were solid in defence and incisive on the break all afternoon.
But then with 88 minutes on the clock, Sanchez popped up on the left and clipped a cross into the box. Giroud jumped highest, just behind Virgil van Dijk and flicked a header into the far bottom corner. It was the perfect Giroud goal, his seventh of the season, but he has still not started a league game this year which is why he wants to go next month, with the World Cup on his mind. If he does, there are worse ways to bow out than like this.
Up until that point this had been an immensely frustrating afternoon for Arsenal who looked like repeating some of the same mistakes they made last Saturday. Eight days ago Arsenal lost to Manchester United because they gifted their opponents two goals in the first 10 minutes, building themselves a mountain they could not climb.
Here at Southampton they had to be better than that, and yet Arsenal is a club where lessons are learned slowly if at all. The first 10 minutes, again, were a defensive shambles and it is only the relative quality of the opposition that meant they only conceded one.
Southampton were set up to play on the break but Arsenal were so desperately open that they cut through three times in the first few minutes. The goal, two minutes in, was simple and incisive. After a quick throw-in down the right, Austin passed the ball forward to Dusan Tadic, who turned Per Mertesacker far too easily. He returned a pass to Austin, continuing his run, and it was a simple enough finish from there.
That should have been a warning but one minute later Austin was through again, bearing down on goal, but Petr Cech read his intentions well, got down and saved. Still the lumbering Arsenal back line could not pick Austin up: he turned a Ryan Bertrand cross onto the post, although the offside flag was up.
With the lead, Southampton could defend as deep as they wanted, their 4-4-2 becoming a 5-4-1 out of possession, as James Ward-Prowse shifted from right wing to wing-back. Often Austin was the only man not in the Saints box. But the same defensive tactics that so frustrated Pep Guardiola recently worked perfectly here.
Of course Arsenal dominated possession but they struggled to do much with it. Alexis Sanchez was as off-form as he has been for weeks and whenever Alexandre Lacazette was lurking in the box he was shut down by Maya Yoshida or Virgin van Dijk. The one real save Fraser Forster had to make in the first half was from an Aaron Ramsey shot from the edge of the box.
The second half followed much the same pattern, endless Arsenal possession but none of it dangerous. First Danny Welbeck then Jack Wilshere then Olivier Giroud all came on. And yet the more men Arsenal threw on, the more dangerous Saints were on the break. Oriol Romeu pinged one 20-yarder against the bar before Nathan Redmond missed a glaring chance for 2-0, racing past Laurent Koscielny only to miscue his dink just wide of the far post.
That, looking back, was the crucial turning point of the game. Arsenal would not have recovered from 2-0, but at 1-0 they hung on in, until Giroud popped up at the very end to equalise.
- More about:
- Premier League
- Arsenal
- Southampton
- Olivier Giroud
- Alexis Sanchez
- Alexandre Lacazette
- Virgil van Dijk
- Oriol Romeu
Reuse content