Arsenal vs. Southampton score: Gunners’ title hopes severely damaged as late comeback falls short in draw

LONDON — If this is to go down as the night that Arsenal bottled the Premier League then at least they fell swinging to the last, scoring a goal in the 88th and 90th minute to drop two, instead of three, points at home in a 3-3 draw with Southampton. It was always a ludicrous conceit that a team on track for 89 points might in any way be failures, that a team who have beaten so many at the death this season might be lacking in mental fortitude. In years gone by a run of three points from as many games would not have necessarily be critical, even if it ended with two points dropped to and three goals conceded against Southampton. It is only because of the Manchester City juggernaut behind them that those in red collapsed to the Emirates Stadium turf in devastation at the final whistle.

In response, Arteta offered what might approximate to a eulogy for Arsenal’s season. “They want it so much,” said a manager who has taken his side further than any neutral could have imagined, let alone reasonably expected, at the start of the season. “What I’ve experienced with the players, the staff, our supporters, it’s incredible. I know how difficult it is.

“The response of the players, I cannot love them more. It’s just a joy to coach them. It’s just a joy to be part of this club and experience what I have experienced together with the team.”

It could of course be premature. You could believe that the title would be back in their hands again if they win at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. Perhaps these players appreciate that a performance even vaguely approximating this one will lead to nothing more than humiliation at the hands of Erling Haaland et al. The worst performances of the season, last weekend against West Ham and Friday hosting Southampton, could scarcely have been more poorly timed. Ultimately champions don’t take two points against the worst side in the Premier League. Arsenal have.

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That is one more than they looked like getting for so much of this game. For all of 27 seconds those who actually touched the ball showed the same cocksureness that had seen them blow a two goal lead against West Ham. They simply did not believe that a bottom half team could pose them any problems. One could see similar qualities in the cavalier way in which Aaron Ramsdale passed the ball straight to Thomas Partey, who had Carlos Alcaraz lurking on his shoulder. Stealing in, the Argentine bent the ball just out of reach of Ramsdale, who too often treads the line between swagger and arrogance.

How quickly that morphed to confusion. Twenty seven seconds in and Arsenal trailed. They had all the time in the world and yet they played with the chaotic energy of a team who had to save their season in the blink of an eye. Even the best of them, Gabriel Martinelli to be precise, was heads down, hero mode with 90 minutes plus left to play. The joy with which this team have eased their way towards goal over their best season in a generation was replaced by skittishness and sloppy errors. All Martin Odegaard needed to do when he took the ball off Thomas Partey in the 14th minute was look up and he would have seen that the ball to the waifish Fabio Vieira, whose 57 minutes raises the question of what on earth Emile Smith Rowe has done wrong during his time sidelined with injury, was not on.

Southampton flew forward and Theo Walcott repeated a trick this ground is all too familiar with, hanging well behind the last man, safe in the knowledge that his pace would be enough to get to the ball. On his 150th appearance at this ground he finished with aplomb. Oleksandr Zinchenko summoned his charges together and for a time the impromptu huddle seemed to have done the trick. The chaos factor subsided and Arsenal got back into their actions, Bukayo Saka ghosting to the right byline and cutting back for Martinelli. Off balance, it took quite perfect technique to keep the volley down. 

But, even a goal down and upping the pressure, there was something off about Arsenal. Rob Holding’s travails on the ball are such that Partey had to drop ever deeper, effectively functioning as a third center back in build up. When William Saliba is available, the center backs ensure that their side can keep the game in the opposition half. There is pace enough to recover balls over the top, penetration to cut through the first line. Holding did everything that could reasonably be expected of him and in the dying moments his one on one defending robbed Southampton of several chances to counter. Allowances, however, have to made for him and they ripple across the side.

Holding was not alone in not giving Arsenal what they needed. Vieira did not drop deep and show for the ball as Granit Xhaka might if he were not ill. Oleksandr Zinchenko was atypically sloppy, Odegaard too. Gabriel Jesus had a game to remind skeptics that he habitually underperforms his expected goals.

With Duje Caleta-Car’s header in the 66th minute, the title seemed gone, Zinchenko offering no defense at the back post that Southampton had been targeting all night. These were points to change the Saints’ season, for a time they were within one of Everton and safety. They looked like holding out, Arsenal’s probing well repelled by assertive performances from Lyanco, Armel Bella-Kotchap and the outstanding Romeo Lavia.

For what seemed like the first time this season the propulsive force of the Emirates Stadium slowed. As supporters scurried for the exit this had the feel of years gone by, a subdued populace worn down by the weight of so many seasons where they have never really competed to the end. The players, however, did not ease up. As time ran down Odegaard checked infield, opened his body and fired towards the far corner. The deficit was halved and Gavin Bazunu’s ludicrous time wasting — it took an hour for Simon Hooper to even warn the Southampton goalkeeper, the referee seemingly incapable of understanding that added time at the end did not balance out the momentum that the chasing team were being robbed off — meant there was enough time for something miraculous.

Of course, Reiss Nelson, hero of the Bournemouth fightback, was at the heart of it. His deflected shot was parried by Bazunu but only into the path of Saka. Arsenal were level and there were still eight minutes to find Arteta’s “magic moment.” It nearly came. Leandro Trossard crashed a brilliant shot against the crossbar. Partey summed up a poor night with a much worse shot as time run out. Between them, Nelson was denied by the finest of deflections. In the space of a few months this ground, revitalized by a young, fearless team, seems to have come to the conclusion that late winners are its birthright. Not this time.

The equation, then, is simple. Win at the Etihad, follow that with another five on the spin and the title is somehow still Arsenal’s. In practice that looks far beyond this team. They seem to know it.