SOUTHAMPTON

LAURENT KOSCIELNY faces a battle to be fit to face Paris Saint-Germain tomorrow because of swelling over his eye which is affecting his vision.

The Arsenal captain took a kick to the head late in the game but, controversially, referee Bobby Madley allowed play to continue.

That enabled the Gunners to win the penalty that Santi Cazorla converted to secure the points – although Saints defender Jose Fonte later claimed that even Olivier Giroud did not realise the award had been given as a result of a perceived foul between the pair.

Medics spent three minutes treating Koscielny’s wound before the spot-kick could be taken, but despite ongoing attention it is touch and go whether he will be in a position to lead the side as they begin their Champions League campaign in the French capital.

It means that having touted the virtues of his squad’s strength in depth, Arsene Wenger could be forced to give Rob Holding a start despite the 20-year-old having played just twice in the top flight.

“Laurent will be a little concern,” Wenger said. “It’s already very swollen. The eye is closed up.

“He is one of the most experienced players we have here. He is one of the longestserving defenders and he is one of our best players.” Koscielny’s astoundingly adept overhead kick had cancelled out a Dusan Tadic free-kick opener that had gone in off the bar and Petr Cech’s back. But it was the fact that Wenger was able to bring on Alexis Sanchez and Giroud from the bench as he chased the game that prompted his comments about the depth of his resources.

“This is my strongest squad, certainly, and certainly the oldest as well,” he said.

The two latest arrivals, Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez, both made their debuts but were largely unconvincing. Can Perez in particular become that elusive 20-goal-a-season striker that Arsenal have lacked ever since Robin van Persie left?

“I hope so,” said “Let’s give him time.”

Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk admitted to a nefarious plot to try to prevent Cazorla from snatching the late win, having been booked for deliberately digging up the penalty spot before the Spaniard’s kick.

“I’m a winner and I want to win obviously and to lose like this is hard,” said Van Dijk. “It’s a penalty in the last minute so you try to do anything to prevent the goal and that’s what I did but it Wenger. didn’t work. We need to step up. The Europa League starts on Thursday, we need to be ready for that and hopefully also the game against Swansea next week.”

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Booked: (4-1-2-1-2): Booked: Goal: