Arsenal have put in a top draw performance to put an impressive Southampton side to bed by a 3-1 scoreline.
The Gunners started the match energised and should have taken the lead inside the opening minute. Alex Lacazette was put in on goal to score in 49 seconds, only for the goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to close his legs onto the ball to get enough on the ball to put it wide. The hosts took the ball straight up the other end to earn a corner however, and managed to punish our mistake by scoring the opening soon after.
Arsenal were next to take advantage of a mistake when the Southampton defender turned down an easy pass back to his keeper in favour of playing out, and within three passes we managed to work the ball into the Emile Smith Rowe to play in Nicolas Pepe behind the defence to slot home. This was all inside the opening eight minutes of action.
While the was no more goals for 30 minutes, both sides were extremely composed and playing with quality, and just while the hosts were looking dominant, we moved to score another.
Lacazette put Saka in through on goal, and the young man used his pace to speed away from the defender before poking it past the goalkeeper before passing into the open net.
The second-half was almost the same as the first, but with less goals. The Saints were having much of the ball, but Arsenal just appeared more deadly in possession, and it was us who added to our tally eventually.
Bukayo Saka caused Southampton further issues with his pace and composure to create the second, getting in deep behind the defence before putting Lacazette in inside the six-yard box.
While I had hoped that Martinelli would start over Pepe, the team as a unit was actually a joy to watch, and the Ivory Coast man will definitely have put his name in contention for more minutes moving forwards after some tough months.
I hope there is more to come from this team, but I must say that I believe this is the best performance from this Arsenal team that I have seen all season.
Patrick