This may not have been plain sailing, but Arsenal will hardly care.
Mikel Arteta’s side responded emphatically to falling behind against newly promoted opponents to rattle in three second-half goals and maintain their challenge at the top of the Premier League.
That they had to recover a deficit felt a shock in itself. Southampton, whose last league win at Arsenal came in November 1987, had defended stoutly through the first half and might even have led through Mateus Fernandes after excellent work from Tyler Dibling after the break. Yet the hosts did not heed that warning.
Moments later, Fernandes sent Cameron Archer away and the forward cut in from the left flank to fizz a low shot beyond David Raya and into the far corner.
That concession served to rouse Arsenal, with Flynn Downes quickly surrendering possession and Kai Havertz smashing in an equaliser. The German was supplied by Bukayo Saka who repeated that trick for Gabriel Martinelli, escaping a tight offside check, to volley the home side’s second from close range.
Not that the visitors let things peter out after that. The excellent Dibling saw a shot deflected on to a post, and they also struck the bar in the mess at the resultant corner, before Saka completed the scoring with a goal of his own.
Jordan Campbell dissects the main talking points from another entertaining afternoon at the Emirates stadium.
Have Arsenal learned lessons from last season?
Mikel Arteta said on Friday that his father is always reminding him that it is the points dropped against lesser sides that has cost Arsenal the last two seasons.
It looked like Arsenal may be about to trip up again when they fell 1-0 behind but, as they did last weekend when they bounced back from letting a two-goal lead slip again Leicester, Arteta’s team moved back up the gears when they needed to.
It was a trait they lacked in the spell last December when they lost back-to-back games to West Ham and Fulham. Even in the defeats to Newcastle and Aston Villa they did not show a mental resillience when they fell behind.
The games fizzled out. In contrast, here Arsenal looked angered; offended that another team should think they can beat them on their own patch.
Not all games can become this taxing as it will takes its toll across a whole season, but it was another test of character passed and the strength of the bench was proven once more.
The second-half flurry of goals ensured Arsenal sealed their 400th home win in the Premier League era, becoming just the second club to reach that landmark, and extends their unbeaten run against newly-promoted sides at home to 42.
Havertz relishes life as Arsenal’s main man
After rifling in his equaliser, Kai Havertz sprinted back to the halfway line and waved his arms in an attempt to cajole his team and the home crowd into action.
It was hard to believe this was the same languid figure who often looked like he was in the wrong movie during the first half of last season.
But Havertz was the driving force for much of the second half, in the thick of the action winning the ball back and attacking corners. Once criticised for being on the periphery, this was his being the protagonist in Arsenal’s comeback.
His stature with the team was highlighted by the very different aura around Gabriel Jesus, who only lasted an hour.
The Brazilian started up front in the Premier League for the first time in 12 games. He has lost his status as first-choice and the gap in efficiency between him and Havertz was stark against Southampton.
There was still the odd moment of magic with his twist and turning, but he struggled to make an impact on the game and tended to overcomplicate the last action in the final third, including his last touch before being subbed when he failed to make a decisive choice in a promising two-versus-one scenario.
Arsenal are a more connected team with Havertz as the focal point, who has now scored at home in seven successive games. Arteta believes he can be the first Arsenal player to break the 20-goal barrier in five years.
Playing with this conviction, the odds look promising.
Did Thomas Partey initially stymie Bukayo Saka?
There was a familiar pattern to Arsenal’s attacks in the first half, and a familiar groan from the West Stand when it invariably led them nowhere.
Bukayo Saka saw so much of the ball on the right wing, but he had more than just Kyle Walker-Peters for company. Southampton doubled — sometimes tripled — up on him.
He would jink both ways trying to find a yard of space but, more often than not, he had to accept the numbers and play back to Thomas Partey, who was filling in at right-back.
With Ben White and Jurrien Timber ruled out and Takehiro Tomiyasu only returning to the bench after injury, Mikel Arteta had to come up with an alternative.
Rather than shift the left-footed Riccardo Calafiori over to the opposite side, as he did in the second half against PSG on Tuesday, he dropped Partey back from midfield.
This wasn’t entirely new to him. He had started at right-back in the first two games of last season, albeit charged with inverting into midfield.
Here, he played a more constrained role but it actually stymied Arsenal down the right flank for long periods of that first half. With no overlapping full-back to assist him, Saka too often lacked decoys needed to create room for him, which was a big factor in Arsenal only registering their first shot on target in the 46th minute.
Yet keeping Saka quiet is proving beyond most opponents this season. The England winger still assisted the first two goals and hammered in one of his own to complete the win — proof of how, even when his all-round game is not as its fluent best, he is still Arsenal’s difference maker.
How did Aaron Ramsdale fare on his return?
The first return to a former club is never easy, especially if you are a goalkeeper and the man who stole your gloves is up the other end.
This was a big day for Aaron Ramsdale, having made the permanent switch from Arsenal to Southampton this summer.
He said this week he had grown tired of the cameras being on him in the stands as much as it was on Raya between the sticks during the latter stages of his stint as an Arsenal player, but the dual narrative was inescapable once more.
There were hugs in the tunnel before the game with his former team-mates, including a warm embrace with Raya, but there would have been nerves too.
It may have been expected that Arsenal would have put him under immense pressure on the ball to test his confidence, but they stood off him when he had possession and only forced him into his first save on the stroke of half-time.
The bigger tests came from corner-kicks, Arsenal’s famous weapon. He knows all about the blocking ploys enacted on opposition goalkeepers and he largely handled the deliveries well, aggressively coming off his line to intercept. He did not always get there, but it was only in the second half that he was made to really work.
He was helpless with all three goals
In the first half the Southampton fans chanted “He left ‘cause your s***” but, come the 98th minute, it was the home crowd bellowing his name in a show of appreciation for his contribution at the club. At full-time Arteta made sure he was the first player he went onto the pitch to hug.
What did Mikel Arteta say?
We will bring you the Arsenal manager’s thoughts once he has completed his post-match press conference.
What next for Arsenal?
Saturday, October 19: Bournemouth (Away), Premier League, 5.30pm UK, 12.30pm ET
Recommended reading
- Arsenal’s Kai Havertz has the ‘qualities and ambition’ to become 20-goal-a-season striker — Mikel Arteta
- Ethan Nwaneri’s impressive cameos beg the question: How might he fit into Arsenal’s starting XI?
- Palmer, Kane, Watkins, Saka, Gordon, Bellingham, Foden… who starts in England’s attack?
- Row Z: Ronaldo the team player, Celtic’s 70,716 miles of suffering and a blow-up Kane
- Antonee Robinson: My game in my words
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
