Due to their relegation, we’re not scheduled to face the Saints again next season, meaning our trips to St Mary’s will continue to be fairly infrequent. However, there have been plenty of memorable meetings with the south-coast club at their current home and their old stomping ground, The Dell.
Here are five of our best to enjoy all over again:
That was quickly doubled when Wright again found himself behind the Saints’ backline and slotted past Tim Flowers, and his dream day was complete on 73 minutes when he gleefully thrashed home the rebound after Alan Smith saw an effort saved by the Saints stopper.
When Ken Monkou brought down Anders Limpar on 69 minutes, that allowed Wright to hit another hat-trick from 12 yards when he dispatched the penalty past Dave Beasant, and with five minutes to go, Kevin Campbell got in on the act when he netted on the turn to wrap up a fine afternoon’s work.
But after the break, Dennis Bergkamp came to the fore. On 57 minutes, he deftly took the ball out of the sky, brought it to the edge of the area and whipped it past Paul Jones to net a sensational strike, and with 11 to play he wrestled past Francis Benali before hammering a shot into the top corner to seal the points for Arsene Wenger’s team.
The Nigerian would miss a couple of golden chances before being swapped for Henry, whose frustration continued when Jones thwarted him when they went one-on-one. But on 79 minutes, he collected a Tony Adams pass, held off Marco Almeida and curled in an unstoppable shot to celebrate the first of a record haul of 228 goals.
The former Saint then doubled his tally midway through the second 45 to continue our dominance, and with six minutes to play Alexis Sanchez unselfishly teed up Walcott to slide home this third of the night and continue the tradition of Arsenal hat-tricks at Southampton.
Six minutes before the break Saka then beat goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to the ball and slid it into an empty net to turn things around, and on 73 minutes the young winger’s centre was bundled in by Alexandre Lacazette to secure a fifth league win in six, as Mikel Arteta’s side began to show some promise after a tough start to the season.
