Disaster for Arsene Wenger's men who are dumped out at the hands of the Saints in abysmal fashion.
Arsenal lacked desire against a fired up Southampton team who were deserved of their away win. However, they started brightly, controlling the game and enjoying Abou Diaby's return from injury. And took a well earned lead through an Alexis Sanchez costless-kick. But soon after, a Dusan Tadic penalty and a thunderous shot from Nathaniel Clyne reversed the score-line. From then on Ronald Koeman's team dominated the affair and Arsenal didn't look up to speed with them.
From kick off the Gunners looked in control, Diaby and Jack Wilshere linked up well but signs of defensive frailty were there from the get go. But in the 14th minute, a delightful costless kick from Sanchez broke the deadlock. From 25 yards, he hit the ball over the wall and it dipped and curled into the top right corner, a technically perfect strike from the Chilean. Arsenal had a lead, no matter how brief. Because in the 20th minute, Southampton winger Sadio Mane cut inside Hector Bellerin and in the process was tripped by Tomas Rosicky, Arsenal's captain for the game, a clear penalty narrowly inside the area. Tadic swept the penalty in. David Ospina diving to early. Tadic impressed from the get go, he was involved in almost every attack Southampton produced. The game was very slow and stop start. It needed a great goal to win it, and that's exactly what is was. A corner was cleared by Calum Chambers and it dribbled to Clyne, who set himself and from 30 yards, hit an absolute rocket. It crashed into the roof of the net leaving Ospina no chance whatsoever. They got no reply from Arsenal, Rosicky and Lukas Podolski stood out and being considerably off the pace and struggled to effect the game at all. The German attacker had one very good chance that he could have taken better, played through a gap in the defence he raced in on goal, only to find his near post shot saved by Fraser Forster. That was how the half ended, Southampton in the ascendancy and Arsenal sleeping.
The second half was exactly the same, Southampton having more chances and shots, and Arsenal looking like a team who had given up. However, they did have one more huge chance, a fizzing cross was turned on goal by Sanchez but was incredibly saved by Forster. But in general the second half didn't ever take off, both sets of players looked very lethargic, with Arsenal only mustering good attacks in the last 5 minutes of the game, this was all far too late as by this point Southampton were content to sit back and counter attack, and twice nearly widened their advantage. But that was how it finished on the night, and arsenal have a North London Derby to look forward to