Southampton hosted Arsenal at St. Mary’s stadium in their Premier League fixture. The match ended 1-1 with Arsenal grabbing a late equaliser in the 88th minute. The Saints got the early lead through Charlie Austin and spent the entirety of the match fending off Arsenal attacks. A floating ball from Alexis Sanchez saw their slim lead disappear as Olivier Giroud headed the ball into the back of the net and snatch the win away from Southampton.
A win would have been exemplary but a draw is not that bad a result for Southampton. They are currently sitting a point behind Everton in the 11th spot and can look to draw a lot of positives from their performance tonight.
Southampton Players Rated And Slated
Fraser Forster: 7/10
He performed his duties very well between the sticks. With multiple saves throughout the match, he almost succeeded in getting the clean-sheet.
Jack Stephens: 6/10
Stephen held off Sanchez and Kolasinac remarkably well stopping them from penetrating the defence down the right.
Maya Yoshida: 6/10
He did not allow Lacazette an inch of space in the box except on a few occasions.
Virgil van Dijk: 7/10
He combined with Yoshida brilliantly and made key passes to launch early counters for his side.
Ryan Bertrand: 6/10
The Englishman was a huge threat for Arsenal down the left-hand side and drilled in threatening balls into the box to find Austin whenever he could.
Oriel Romeu: 5/10
He was huge for Southampton on the defensive end.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg: 6/10
He had his work cut out for him today in stopping Ramsey and Xhaka from penetrating the defence through the middle.
James Ward- Prowse: 8/10
He was the best player for the Southampton side along with Charlie Austin, as he whipped in menacing balls into the box given the opportunity. He constantly looked to find a Southampton body in the opposition box and forced Cech to make a save to one his shots deceived to be a cross.
Dusan Tadic: 5/10
He cleverly slotted the ball through the two defenders to assist Austin for the early lead in the game.
Nathan Redmond: 3/10
Finding himself in acres of space in the Arsenal half, he gave up possession countless times during counter attacks and failed to go past any of the Arsenal defenders.
Charlie Austin: 8/10
The striker was laser-focused on finding the back of the net today as he did within the first 5 minutes of the match. The Arsenal defence could barely keep up with his energetic runs into the box often coming close to conceding more from the Englishman.
Substitutes:
Soufiane Boufal: NA
Manolo Gabbiadini: NA
Steven Davis: NA
