Super-sub Giroud spares Gunners' blushes at St. Mary's
Southampton took an early lead and defended tooth and nail before Giroud's late header allowed the Gunners to come away with a point.
Per Mertesacker replaced Shkodran Mustafi at the heart of the Gunners defence, carrying the captain’s armband as the teams emerged from the tunnel at St. Mary’s. But the German’s afternoon got off to a woeful start when Southampton took the lead inside the first three minutes.
The Arsenal defender gave the ball to Tadic, who turned away from him easily and slid the ball in for Charlie Austin to tuck his effort past Petr Cech with the outside of his foot.
The visitors were unresponsive in the opening stages and Austin almost grabbed a second just minutes later, when another Tadic pass made a fool of the Arsenal defence. The striker found himself in acres of space before forcing Cech into making a smart save.
A spot of possession for the Gunners seemed to finally give them the upper hand, but the Saints were happy to soak up the pressure and go for the kill on the counter-attack. Arsenal were unable to get out of first gear, and Southampton were all over them.
A couple of fast-paced moves from the Gunners finally caught the hosts off-guard and Forster was tested by Lacazette and Ramsey, the latter firing a low volley from the top of the box which was superbly pushed away by the goalkeeper. Ward-Prowse and Austin also forced Cech into action at the other end, as the unrelenting pace made up for an entertaining matchup.
The home side shut up shop and looked to defend their precious lead after the break. Arsenal’s dominance continued while they waited for an opportunity to present itself. Patience is a virtue and the Gunners held true to that.
Southampton allowed little gaps for the visitors to exploit and were always a threat on the break. Arsenal had the ball. The hosts had the chances.
Romeu clipped the top of the bar with a fierce effort from distance and Tadic then played Bertrand through on goal, but the left-back’s dink over Cech drifted wide of the goal.
Arsenal had every man but Cech in the opposition half for most of the afternoon, and yet they still failed to get a shot on target in the second half until the 84th minute, when Alexis Sanchez’s free-kick from 25 yards was parried away by Forster.
But the goalkeeper was finally beaten two minutes from the end. Olivier Giroud came off the bench to rescue Arsenal as he glanced a header into the far corner.