Arsenal 1, Southampton 1: Arterta’s woes continues

ARSENAL tied Southhampton yesterday at the Emirates with 10 men after Gabriel was shown another yellow card. Theo Walcott opened the scoring against his former club with a lovely finish in the first half of the game.

  Although not immedietaely Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang responded as he  ended his 11-game goal drought with a cool finish not long after half-time.

  The disciplinary problems persist – the Gunners finishing their second consecutive game with 10 men following Gabriel’s nonsensical red card.

  The performance was far from perfect; the result not necessarily what the gunners hoped for.

  But after a chaotic few weeks they’ll take this draw gleefully. Arteta will hope this is the beginning of the end of what has been a disastrous period.

  The proof will be in the pudding, of course. But finally the beleaguered Spaniard has something tangible to cling onto.

  He rolled the dice; making four changes from the team that lost to Burnley on Sunday.

  Eddie Nketiah, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Nicolas Pepe were among those given a chance to jolt Arsenal out of their slumber.

  In the end his team selection came through – he deserves credit for that.

Not that the alterations appeared to do Arsenal much good during the opening exchanges.

  Arsenal continued in the same vein they have since the start of the season, huffing and puffing without a credible goal threat.

  Pepe saw an effort blocked by Jannick Vestergaard in the 27th minute before Bukayo Saka created a mad panic in the Saints box.

  But it was all something of nothing, really. Arsenal, once again, were toothless.

  The only positive for Arsenal was that they couldn’t be as powderpuff in the second half.

  But in the end it was Southampton who were fortunate to leave with a point as Rob Holding struck the cross bar in injury time as the encounter ended all-square.