Ben Fisher’s match report from St Mary’s:
Summing up
So, Arsenal stride on, their blend of youth and experience proved far too strong for Southampton, whose memorable week ended with a proper drubbing. Walcott delivered a hat-trick of the highest quality, Oxlade-Chamberlain excelled and a range of young’uns – from Reine-Adelaide to Holding – showed they have plenty about them. Which would all have made encouraging viewing for Arsène Wenger from his naughty step in the stand. Claude Puel won’t have enjoyed it at all, and Southampton need to regroup, pep up their league form a little and prepare for Wembley. You wouldn’t bet against Arsenal also ending up there too in May, on today’s evidence. Anyway, that’s all from us. Thanks for your company and emails. Bye.
Full-time: Southampton 0-5 Arsenal
And that’s yer lot. A smooth, stylish demolition job from Arsenal then against a Southampton side who don’t have the resources to reshuffle effectively the way Wenger can.
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90 mins: We’ll have a trifling two minutes added on. No point in adding any more I guess.
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89 mins: Perez nearly makes it six, bearing down on goal in a one-on-one from a long perceptive ball forward, with the outside of the boot, from Oxlade-Chamberlain but Lewis blocks.
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88 mins: Southampton win a corner. It’s taken short. Tadic sends an innocuous curling cross into the arms of Ospina – their evening, there.
87 mins: Southampton shot on target! Sims – Southampton’s perkiest performer this half – cuts in on the left-hand side of the area and sends a decent skimming shot towards the bottom corner but Opsina parries it away.
86 mins: Walcott is now on 99 goals for Arsenal. He has four-plus minutes to bring up his century tonight. You wouldn’t bank on him failing to at the moment.
Goal! Southampton 0-5 Arsenal (Walcott, 85 hat-trick)
Arsenal’s fans are now singing their old Vieira song – that moment (rare for fans of most clubs, most of the time) – when you can just relax and have a singalong about any and everything, regardless of relevance to the match situation at hand. In that match situation, Southampton are actually seeing a lot of the ball at the moment. But doing nothing with it. And unlike them, Arsenal are. They break swiftly through Sánchez, he rolls it from left to right on the edge of the area, and Walcott strokes it into the opposite corner of the net to seal a sumptuous hat-trick.
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81 mins: Some neat interplay down the Southampton right involving Hojbjerg and Tadic gives the home side a sustained spell of possession – but nothing more. Nowt comes of it.
79 mins: “The FA Cup draw should be honest,” Tweets Gary Naylor, “Number 7, Champions League Reserves, will play Number 9, Relegation Strugglers Under 21” Oxlade-Chamberlain skilfully wins another corner on the right, but it’s cleared.
76 mins: Gibbs loses possession inside his own half, but a measure of Arsenal’s superiority in all areas of the pitch is seen when the ball is played forward to Tadic inside the area. He’s outnumbered four to one by Gunners defenders and the chance goes. Arsenal’s young defenders have impressed this evening also.
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74 mins: A lovely little run down the left by Saints’ Sims, skipping two tackles on the left and charging into the box, winning a corner, which is half-cleared, giving Clasie a half-chance, which is blocked. Arsenal clear
72 mins: Arsenal sub: Iwobi for Reine-Adelaide, who’s had a productive run-out tonight.
71 mins: That said, Southampton are winning corners, but never threatening with them and another Tadic delivery is easily dealt with. Arsenal clear, Southampton come again and Tadic gets a chance 25 yards out but larrups a volley wildly over.
70 mins: A chance for another as Gibbs gets down the left, finds Sanchez, who tries just a bit too much trickery inside the box and is dispossessed. What a stroll this is for the visitors
Goal! Southampton 0-4 Arsenal (Walcott, 69)
Ospina is almost put in trouble by a weak back-pass as Redmond bears down, but Arsenal effortlessly break clear and effortlessly score and in the blink of an eye Oxlade-Chamberlain gets down the right, plays in Sanchez on the by-line and the Chilean’s low ball in is met by a low, controlled finish into the bottom corner by Walcott.
67 mins: Southampton actually win a midfield possession battle, and pass it around agreeably before moving it forward for Redmond who plays in Clasie, who hoicks his shot high over the bar from 25 yards.
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65 mins: Southampton subs: Isgrove replaced by Tadic; Long replaced by Redmond. Arsenal sub: Sanchez replaces Welbeck
63 mins: Gibbs gets clear down the left but runs it into a cul-de-sac when he cuts inside, but the sustained Arsenal possession continues, and Alexis Sánchez is getting ready to come on…
62 mins: The away end is cranking out old-school Arsenal songs – about Wembley and baiting Spurs and such-like – which is perhaps a reflection of the greater numbers who get tickets for these matches as opposed to run of the mill Premier League games. Their team break smartly again, with Reine-Adelaide feeding Welbeck and then Perez who plays Welbeck back in again on the penalty spot but the shot is blocked.
58 mins: Bellerin and Perez play a slick one-two on the edge of the Southampton box but Southampton clear, and the lively Sims gets down the left and sends a cross-shot straight at Opsina. All the while Reine-Adelaide is down but play continues. The winger is back up now.
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56 mins: Sims wins another Southampton corner with a darting run down the left, taking on Maitland-Niles who clears behind. But another poor delivery drifts straight behind the goal.
54 mins: Oxlade-Chamberlain sends a smart high crossfield ball into the path of Walcott who gets clear but misses the chance to get an instant shot in and his effort is blocked. Southampton half-clear but Arsenal are soon in possession again, knocking it about with aplomb – the home side’s midfield is missing here. But they clear the danger for now.
53 mins: Welbeck breaks clear with another lovely, elegant jinking run through the middle, beating three men before sliding in Perez who pulls it back for Bellerin whose fierce shot is straight at the keeper.
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51 mins: Long wins a corner for Southampton, after foraging into the box on the left , but the subsequent delivery is poor and claimed by Opsina under no challenge.
50 mins: … Which comes to nothing, the ball being cleared and then fired back harmlessly over the bar.
49 mins: Arsenal win another free-kick in a threatening area and play it about – sideways, back, forwards, back, before Gibbs gets clear in the left, feeds Welbeck and the ever-likeable forward cuts inside and has a crack at goal, which deflects for a corner …
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46 mins: Arsenal are on the attack from the outset, winning a free-kick midway into their opponents’ half but it’s overhit by Oxlade-Chamberlain and the keeper Lewis gathers. No changes from what I can discern.
Peep! They’re off again
“A tag team MBM?” asks J.R. in Illinois. “Is there any precedent for that? Well in any case you got hosed because, as the immortal baseball announcer Hawk Harrelson would say, ‘This ballgame is O-VAH!’. What are you going to talk about during the second half?” I dunno. The weather? What we’re having for dinner tonight?
Evening everyone, and thanks Simon. Well this is in the bag for Arsenal isn’t it? Mid-table Southampton evidently spurning the chance to go for broke in developing a cup-specialists tag and instead going missing for this tie. Can they rouse themselves somehow? Let’s see. Second half starting shortly.
It’s been a pretty thrilling half from a theoretically underpowered Arsenal, and Southampton don’t appear to have any idea what to do about it. On the plus side, their actual manager will be on hand to give them their half-time instructions, while Arsenal’s is stuck in the stands busily relaying messages via semaphore, or somesuch. Much drama to come, I’m sure, and Tom Davies is going to take you through the rest of the game: I encourage you to email him here. Bye!
Half time: Southampton 0-3 Arsenal
The whistle blows, and Southampton have some series hole-extracation to do.
45+2 mins: A chance! Martina steals the ball from Gibbs on the right and pulls back to Sims, who would have had a wonderful opportunity had he produced a decent first touch. He didn’t.
45+1 mins: We’re in stoppage time now, of which there’ll be about two minutes.
45 mins: Saints are at least doing a bit of pushing as the half limps towards a conclusion. Still, just that Hojbjerg volley to show for their efforts, chance-wise.
44 mins: Sims momentarily has a half-chance to do something inside Arsenal’s penalty area. He doesn’t take it.
@Simon_Burnton Without injuries Arsenal evidently have a deep squad. Or is it that Southampton have been flaccid?
— William Hargreaves (@billhargreaves) January 28, 2017
They have been a little over-accommodating. Not so much two banks of four as one slightly ragged bank of four and a rag-tag scattering of uncertainty in front of them. The opposite of Wolves’ defensive performance from earlier.
40 mins: Southampton send in a cross from the right, Ospina rushes out to claim it, but makes contact with Long in doing so and ends up rolling about on the floor in apparent discomfort.
37 mins: Clasie skews a shot wide from 20 yards. Arsenal’s passing and movement have been exemplary, and at another level to anything Southampton have so far mustered.
GOAL! Southampton 0-3 Arsenal (Walcott, 35 mins)
Arsenal are slicing and dicing here. A lovely move this, with Welbeck passing to Perez on the edge of the area, racing forward to collect the return, and then sliding it across goal for Walcott to poke in!
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33 mins: Hojbjerg sends the free-kick powerfully wide of goal.
32 mins: Sims wins the ball well, not far outside Arsenal’s penalty area, and allowing Long to fall over Gibbs’ foot and win a free kick on the edge of the area.
29 mins: Oooh! Arsenal win a free-kick deep on the right, Oxlade-Chamberlain crosses it and Mustafi rises all alone but sends his header wide. “Welbeck needs to take all the chances he can get,” writes RG Fleuridor, “because in two weeks he’ll sustain a nine-month injury.”
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26 mins: Ospina redeems himself immediately, pushing the ball wide after Martina picked out the onrushing Long with a lovely curling pass out of defence.
25 mins: And then Southampton attack, Ospina randomly runs out of his goal, and Hojberg volleys over a worryingly undeguarded net.
24 mins: Poor Jack Stephens, trying to get back and clear the shot before it rolled over the line, smacked both foot and knee against the post.
GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Arsenal (Welbeck, 22 mins)
Welbeck’s second shot of the season isn’t bad either! Oxlade-Chamberlain picks him out with a lofted long pass from midfield, and the forward controls the ball well and then slightly scuffs it under Lewis and just the right side of the post.
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20 mins: Gardos saves a likely second goal, flinging out a foot to divert a ball that Welbeck looked set to run onto as it bounced towards the penalty area.
17 mins: That was Welbeck’s first shot of the season, apparently.
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GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Arsenal (Welbeck, 15 mins)
A lovely goal from Arsenal. Perez, a yard outside the penalty area and bang central, with his back to goal, flicks the ball to his right and only Welbeck anticipates it, running into the area a lifting the ball over Lewis and into goal!
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11 mins: A quieter few minutes, in which the loudest cheer came when Ospina fell over mid-goal-kick. The ball still reached the half-way line, so it wasn’t a terrible calamity.
8 mins: Reine-Adelaide sets up Oxlade-Chamberlain for a first-time shot from 22 yards or so, but it flies low and wide of goal.
5 mins: Then Reine-Adelaide finds Perez on the left, and his driven cross zips across goal and out the other side. Pretty decent opening few minutes, this.
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4 mins: Arsenal break, fly down the other end, and Walcott’s shot from the edge of the area is deflected behind for a corner, from which nothing much happens.
3 mins: Long attacks a cross from the right, doesn’t each it, and ends the move limping badly and gingerly feeling a calf muscle.
2 mins: Arsenal win the ball, play it around a bit, and then smack a wildly wayward pass off the pitch for no obvious reason. Goal kick.
1 min: Peeeep! They’re off! Southampton get the ball quite literally rolling.
The players are on their way out of the tunnel. “Ten changes and Carl Jenkinson still can’t get a game?” ponders Brian. “Big Sam’s come-to-bed eyes must be starting to look pretty attractive.”
It’s been an unusually good fourth round Saturday so far - though Wycombe came very close to making it better still. It’s hard to know what these two relatively familiar foes can add to it, really, except I suppose a bucketful of goals and drama. Fingers crossed, eh?
And Arsene Wenger does likewise:
It’ll be largely the same, but I can’t do my job completely because I hae to go to the stands during the game. We try to adapt, and I trust my assistant during the game. We have changed players but many of them are regular players, Bellerin, Walcott, Welbeck. In the middle of the park we’re a bit short. We know they are a good side, they have good players in every position. We are focused. We want to do well, we want to stay in the Cup, let’s focus on doing the job well.
Claude Puel does a pre-match chat:
It was a good game in a good competition, the last game against Liverpool. Now it’s another competition. Difficult. I think it’s an exciting game of course, for all my squad, with young players, it’s interesting to see our level against this team. We have lots of injuries and Boufal can’t play because of the national team, of course it’s difficult for us. It’s a good level, a good balance between young players and experienced players, and I hope we can do a strong game and get a good result.
Talking of being out for a while, Florin Gardos last made a first-team appearance in February 2015.
Theo Walcott hasn’t played since 18 December, having missed Arsenal’s last five league games with a calf strain. He’s actually in pretty hot goalscoring form, with three in his last five.
Just the nine changes for Arsenal.
Southampton make 10 changes to the team that played at Anfield in midweek. Jack Stephens is the one who keeps his place.
The teams
The team sheets have been handed in, and these were the names upon them:
Southampton: Lewis, Martina, Gardos, Stephens, McQueen, Hojbjerg, Clasie, Reed, Sims, Long, Isgrove. Subs: Yoshida, Davis, Tadic, Romeu, Bertrand, Redmond, Taylor.
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Gibbs, Reine-Adelaide, Maitland-Niles, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas Perez, Welbeck. Subs: Mertesacker, Gabriel, Sanchez, Iwobi, Monreal, Jenkinson, Martinez.
Referee: Kevin Friend.
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Hello world!
You what? Another Southampton game? How can this be? Since Santa shuffled down his final chimney Southampton have played a faintly comical nine games and Arsenal a mere six (an FA Cup replay and a two-legged EFL Cup semi-final the difference). Claude Puel has described this schedule as “crazy”, saying his side have had “no time to take pleasure” in their good results - partly because most of them are injured, but also because those that aren’t have been too busy preparing for their next fixture. Still, they’re getting better the more then play: those nine matches can be handily split into three groups of three: the first three were all lost, the last three were all won, and in the middle three everything happened, with a win, a draw and a defeat.
Both teams have midweek Premier League fixtures to worry about - Southampton at Swansea, Arsenal at home to Watford - and significant squad-rotation would seem to be likely. The teams should be coming through any minute now, so hold on to your hats!
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Simon will be here shortly. Until then, read Ben Fisher’s piece on Claude Puel, Southampton and talk of Chinese investment on the south coast:
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