Aubameyang rescues 10-man Arsenal as Walcott nets against former club

Arteta’s men did at least manage to avoid a historic fifth home league defeat in a row, but, as has become something of a habit, they were compromised by indiscipline just as they had started to show encouraging signs and could ultimately consider themselves lucky to hold on to a point.


Arsenal initially struggled to get to grips with Southampton and only really began offer a threat of their own in the latter stages of the first period – by that point, former Gunner Theo Walcott had already given the visitors a deserved lead..

Southampton’s urgency dropped and Arsenal restored parity through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang early in the second half, the Gabon striker ending an 11-match league streak without a goal from open play.

But their hopes of returning to winning ways in the league were dashed when Gabriel Magalhaes was shown Arsenal’s seventh red card – four more than any other Premier League club – since Arteta’s first game in charge.

Although Saints did not exactly pepper the Arsenal goal, they displayed much greater cohesion and it came as little surprise to see them carve open the hosts in the 18th minute – Walcott latching on to Che Adams’ throughball and clipping a sumptuous finish over the approaching Bernd Leno.

Arsenal improved moderately in the latter stages of the first half, but Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe – restored to the starting XI following suspension – were denied by Alex McCarthy.

That improvement continued after the break and the equaliser arrived after 52 minutes.

Saka impressively evaded three Saints defenders before offloading to Eddie Nketiah on the edge of the box, and his flick released Aubameyang to slot in his first open-play goal since the first match of the season.

But Gabriel was shown two yellow cards in quick succession, the second for tugging back Walcott on the break, as Arsenal’s task suddenly became trickier.

Nathan Redmond almost saw Saints take full advantage as he knocked Oriol Romeu’s pass on to the crossbar 20 minutes from time, before Rob Holding was also denied by the woodwork in stoppage time.

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