Birthday boy Laurent Koscielny started his celebrations in style as his overhead kick helped Arsenal to a 2-1 win over Southampton.
The defender's spectacular effort cancelled out Petr Cech's own goal before a late Santi Cazorla penalty saw the Gunners claim a dramatic three points at the Emirates.
Fellow birthday boy Lucas Perez made his debut for the hosts, along with fellow new signing Shkodran Mustafi, but the duo were unable to do anything to prevent Southampton from taking an 18th-minute lead. Cech did excellently to get a touch on the ball and tip Dusan Tadic's curling free-kick onto the woodwork, but the rebound hit his back and went into the net for an unfortunate own goal.
Arsenal hit back with an expertly-taken equaliser after 28 minutes. Perez headed the ball towards Koscielny and the defender met it with a sweetly struck overhead kick and one that looked more like what you'd expect from a striker.
Southampton's defence held firm and blocked any attempted shots on goal from the Gunners to ensure the scores were level going in at the break.
Shane Long tried his luck from distance in the second-half, but his effort was comfortably saved by Cech, before Hector Bellerin missed a chance at the other end with his powerful strike fizzing across the face of goal.
Both sides were failing to make the most of the opportunities coming their way. Tadic and Long combined well before the latter raced into the box, only to send his effort harmlessly wide. At the other end, Alexis Sanchez latched onto a pass from Mesut Ozil before shooting just over the bar, while Nacho Monreal saw his effort deflect wide.
Southampton maybe should've taken the lead with eight minutes remaining. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's shot hit a defender on its way to goal and Cech did excellently to parry it away, but Long really should've done better with the rebound. Credit to Cech for reacting quickly to save Long's follow-up with his leg, but the striker didn't hit it with enough conviction to really trouble the goalkeeper.
It looked like it was going to end all square when Olivier Giroud's header hit the side-netting, but Arsenal had other ideas. As Cazorla sent a the ball into the box and Koscielny ended up getting hurt and went down clutching his face. But play continued and Arsenal sent the ball back into the box where Giroud went down under a challenge from Jose Fonte, who appeared to tug at the Frenchman's shirt. It could be seen as a soft penalty, but Fonte was pulling at Giroud's shirt in the box, which is always a risky thing to do. After Koscielny had received treatment, Cazorla stepped up and made no mistake as he scored from the resulting stoppage-time penalty.
Southampton had a chance to level deep into stoppage time, but Long didn't get enough power on his header which was comfortably saved by Cech.
It wasn't the prettiest of victories, but a wins a win and I am delighted with the result. Sixth place and seven points out of a possible 12 is far from ideal though, but at least we were able to win a game when a point had looked more likely until the late drama.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Southampton fan Mavis John
"This hasn't been the best of starts to the season for Saints, but today's performance left me feeling rather more optimistic.
"We played well for more than just 10 minutes at a time, but had the all too frequent Southampton problem of creating chances but not putting them away - Shane Long particularly at fault this afternoon.
"There were some strange refereeing decisions at the end of the match when play wasn't stopped despite an Arsenal player being on the ground with a head injury - and then the penalty! Disappointing not to come away with a point."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
In previous seasons this could've been a game that we might have lost. It wasn't the greatest performance, but we got the result and that's what matters and we'll have to wait and see how the next few weeks pan out before we really know what direction are season is going in.
Focus now turns to the Champions League and the first match up for the Gunners is arguably their toughest group game - away against PSG. We will need to be at the top of our game to get a result in France, but it is a possibility. If we are to improve on our previous Champions League campaigns we need a strong start and prove early on that we mean business, so let's wait and see what happens.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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