Southampton hosted the twentieth "Premier" league match between the home team and London's "Arsenal". Both teams had the same number of points before the match, but today the "Saints" managed to strengthen their position in fourth place. It is worth mentioning that this was the first home victory against the "Gunners" in the national championship since 2002. From the very beginning, both teams played actively and had many opportunities to score. Alexis Sanchez hit the goalkeeper Fraiser Forster from a distance several times, while "Southampton" sniper Graziano Pelle missed a great opportunity with his head. In the thirty-fourth minute, the home team's goalkeeper Sadio Mane scored a magnificent goal from the edge of the penalty area. The "Gunners" goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny also contributed significantly to this goal by leaving his position at the wrong time. After six minutes, the same Mane suffered an injury and was replaced by Harrison Reed. Nothing memorable happened in the first half. After playing just over 10 minutes in the second half, Dusan Tadic doubled the lead after another terrible mistake by the "Arsenal" defenders and goalkeeper. In the first part of the second half, there were two more noteworthy episodes. First, Laurent Koscielny gifted the ball to the opponents and the "Gunners" only managed to save themselves from conceding a goal thanks to Mathieu Debuchy standing empty-handed in the goal. A few minutes later, in a quick attack, Florin Gardos brought down Alex Sanchez. Although the Chilean had already passed all the opponents' defenders and the Romanian tackled him from behind, the referee only showed a yellow card to the "Saints" player. Later, after a substitution, Theo Walcott, who had recovered from an injury, appeared for "Arsenal", but the Englishman not only did not help his team equalize the lead, but also hardly touched the ball at all. "Southampton" created significantly more dangerous opportunities, even though they had a safe two-goal lead.
