GENIUS ALEXIS DOES IT AGAIN
PREMIER LEAGUE ACTION Sanchez boosts Euro bid
ALEXIS SANCHEZ showed just why Arsenal are desperate to keep him.
Sanchez scored his 20th League goal of the season on the hour, after Arsene Wenger’s men had been outplayed at St Mary’s.
The Chilean magician left two defenders on their backsides after bringing Mesut Ozil’s pass brilliantly under his spell before calmly rolling his shot beyond the helpless Fraser Forster.
Substitute Olivier Giroud added the second to seal the win that boosts Arsenal’s late bid for a Champions League place.
But a hamstring injury to Alex OxladeChamberlain may rule the England midfielder out of the FA Cup Final on May 27
Southampton did not deserve to fall behind after being kept out by Petr Cech’s first half super-show.
Only relegated Sunderland and Middlesbrough have scored fewer home goals. But Claude Puel’s team started on the front foot, with Nathan Redmond testing Cech’s reactions with a teasing left-wing cross inside the first minute.
Moments later Redmond bamboozled Oxlade-Chamberlain before pulling the ball back for Steven Davis to side-foot off target.
England defender Ryan Bertrand tried his luck on seven minutes, volleying dangerously across face of goal.
Wenger had labelled the match “make or break” but his players were dozing for the opening 15 minutes.
Arsenal had another huge let-off 14 minutes before half-time when Dusan Tadic beat
their offside trap only to be denied a shot at goal by a desperate last-ditch tackle from Shkodran Mustafi.
The ball broke kindly for Manolo Gabbiadini but Cech came to Wenger’s rescue, racing off his line to block the Italian’s effort.
A fifth win in six games would take Arsenal to three points off the top four and crank up the pressure on stuttering Liverpool.
Raging
The Gunners were without captain Laurent Koscielny due to injury so Mustafi deputised as Wenger stuck with the three-man backline which has been the bedrock of their revival.
Nine minutes before half-time OxladeChamberlain hobbled off clutching his hamstring to be replaced by Hector Bellerin.
Wenger was raging in the 40th minute after Mustafi was penalised for a foul on Tadic even though he clearly won the ball and Gabbiadini curled the free-kick inches wide.
Cech, wearing the skipper’s armband, produced a stunning one-handed save to turn behind Redmond’s power-packed long-ranger as Arsenal stuttered towards half-time.
Arsenal’s toothless display up to then was summed up five minutes into the second half. Bellerin made a run down the right and his cross was flashed goalwards by Aaron Ramsey only to see the ball strike Danny Welbeck and trickle wide.
But in Sanchez, Arsenal have a match-winner and their trusty number seven showed his class to break the deadlock.
Gabbiadini came close to an equaliser minutes later before Giroud headed Arsenal’s second seven minutes from time.
SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): Forster; Cédric, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand; Romeu, Davis; Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Redmond; Gabbiadini. Subs: Hassen, Cáceres, Hojbjerg, Long, Rodriguez, Boufal, Pied.
ARSENAL (3-4-3): Cech; Holding, Mustafi, Monreal; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Gibbs; Sanchez, Welbeck, Ozil. Subs: Opsina, Gabriel, Giroud, Walcott, Iwobi, Bellerin, Coquelin.
Referee: Jonathan Moss.