Saints blown away by a Welbeck and Walcott whirlwind

AT the end of a whirlwind week for Southampton, they were met by a Welbeck and Walcott whirlwind of equal force as Arsenal blew them out of the FA Cup.

Danny Welbeck scored two and set up another in his first start in 265 days, while Theo Walcott netted a hat-trick against his former club.

So a competition in which Premier League clubs are ever more frequently selecting youngsters, fringe players or those, like Welbeck, returning to fitness, provided the perfect opportunity for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger to start his absent striker.

The first, on 15 minutes was a sublime, delicate finish. Running on to a first-time through ball from Lucas Perez, he took one touch with his right boot before poking the ball over Southampton goalkeeper Harry Lewis, who had come off his line. The ball clipped the underside of the crossbar on its way in.

Wenger was unable to orchestrate from the touchline due to his four-match ban and had to watch from the St Mary’s stand and communicate with the dugout via a black hands-free earpiece.

Seven minutes later, Welbeck ran in behind Southampton’s defence and brought down Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s long pass over the top and exquisitely sent the ball through Lewis’s legs and rolled it into the bottom-left corner.

Walcott added the third but it was created by Welbeck’s awareness. The ex-Manchester United man ran in behind Southampton’s defence once again but was at too tight an angle on the left to go for goal. Instead he bypassed Lewis with a low ball across and Walcott was first to it to tap in.

Welbeck did not last long into the second half and was replaced by Alexis Sanchez in the 65th minute, who pulled the ball back for Walcott to make it four less than four minutes later.

And he completed his hat-trick with five minutes remaining, Sanchez assisting once more.

Walcott said: ‘From the word go, we were ready. We’ve been lacking on good starts lately but we came out of the blocks running, and this man next to me (Welbeck) has obviously come back with an absolute bang.

‘It’s great to see him back on the pitch.’