Arsenal beat Southampton 3-1 on Tuesday evening to move up to eighth in the Premier League and continue their mission for a European spot.
They made six changes from the FA cup defeat against the Saints on Saturday to add some experience to the side bringing in David Luiz, Thomas Partey, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah. The Gunners were 11th in the table on 27 points two points behind their opponents.
Southampton also made three changes, replacing the injured Kyle Walker-Peters and the suspended Ryan Bertrand with Yan Valery and youngster Jake Vokins at right and left back respectively, while Alex McCarthy was back in goal.
Alexandre Lacazette missed a chance in the opening minute of the game as Southampton gave the ball away deep in their own half allowing the Arsenal striker to be through but he fired straight at the keeper.
Two minutes later Saints put themselves 1-0 up as Stuart Armstrong got onto the end of a James Ward-Prowse corner and smashed it past Bernd Leno from the edge of the box.
The lead only lasted for five minutes as Arsenal pressed the south coast side who gave the ball away again, allowing Granit Xhaka to play-in Nicolas Pepe who slotted past McCarthy into the bottom corner to level the score.
Both teams saw chances come their way and in the 39th minute Saka rounded the out-rushing McCarthy and calmly finished into an open net to give Arsenal the lead just before half-time.
For much of the second-half there were no clear-cut chances until the 72nd minute, when Cedric Soares hit a 35-yard switch across to Saka who played the ball across the box to Lacazette for an easy tap-in to seal the three points for the London club.
Luiz almost gave Saints a lifeline in the 82nd minute with a loss of concentration gifting the ball to Che Adams, but Rob Holding recovered well to block the shot allowing Leno to collect the ball and for Arsenal to see out the game.
The win pushed the winners up to eighth in the table and will try to gather momentum going into their game on Saturday against league challengers Manchester United as they continue to look for a European spot.
Southampton now sit 11th in the table and will look for redemption against Aston Villa at the weekend and will hope to be to bring in some of their missing players to get back to winning ways.
By Evan Clem
