Southampton served defending champions Manchester City after denying Arsenal a ninth consecutive domestic and continental win, forcing them to a 1-1 draw on Sunday in English Premier League Stage 13.
Spanish manager Mikel Arteta’s team entered the meeting with a point lead against Manchester City after the latter’s 3-1 win over Brighton on Saturday, but failed to regain the four-point difference after being satisfied with the first draw of the season. compared to 9 wins and one loss against Manchester United 1-3 on 4 September in Stage 6.
The London team appeared to be on track for their fifth consecutive league win, thus pushing the margin back to 4 points again, with two postponed matches in the pocket, one from the last leg against City in particular due to his association. with the rescheduled match in the Europa League against PSV Eindhoven.
Arsenal ended the first half at St Mary’s early thanks to an early goal scored by Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka in the 11th minute after a cross from Ben White.
But the hosts took advantage of Arteta’s inefficiency in front of the net to return to the meeting at the beginning of the second half with a beautiful goal, which came after a counter-attack and a series of passes, to get the ball to the Scot Stuart Armstrong from the Norwegian substitute of Moroccan origin Mohamed El Younesi, who shot past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale (65).
Back then, Arsenal were unable to regain progress, settling for a point that could have cost them much later in their quest to win the title for the first time since 2004 and the days of French manager Arsène Wenger.
