Cazorla comes to Arsenal’s rescue with stoppage-time penalty

Faced with dropping another two points, Arsenal benefited from a favorable refereeing decision after Jose Fonte dragged down Olivier Giroud with a tug on the striker’s shirt 30 seconds into stoppage time.

It was a bitter pill for the visitors to swallow, with Southampton still seeking their first win under new manager Claude Puel.

Arsenal pushed to find another before the break but Southampton stood firm – in relative comfort – and emerged for the second period with Shane Long spearheading their attack at the expense of Jay Rodriguez.

Arsenal were slow to get going, with debutant Lucas Perez quiet and Mesut Ozil off-colour, but they eventually enjoyed their first period of sustained pressure just before the half-hour mark.

Francis Coquelin also returned to the team as Giroud and Alexis Sanchez were rested ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League opener away to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

“It is a disappointment for my players to lose this game in this condition”.

Theo Walcott headed Cazorla’s 25th minute corner over the bar before the Spaniard was booked for dissent as agitation began to spread across Emirates Stadium.

With Arsenal 1-0 down at home to Southampton, Koscielny came to Arsene Wenger’s rescue with a first-half strike of stunning beauty.

Arsenal soon levelled the score for themselves via defender Laurent Koscielny’s overhead kick in the 29th minute of the match.

The student clearly learnt well as Southampton steadied themselves to reach half-time without further alarm.While Arsenal had plenty of possession Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster was well-protected, his only moment of concern coming when Hector Bellerin flashed a shot wide. Lucas, whose debut could most charitably described as “quiet”, was replaced by Giroud and Sanchez came on for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Wenger sent on Alex Iwobi for Walcott in his final change but it was Santi Cazorla who almost made the decisive contribution, sidefooting Sanchez’s incisive pass towards goal but his effort was blocked by Van Dijk and the loose ball just evaded Giroud’s reach.

At the other end, Sanchez had added energy and objective to the home attack.

Southampton were a threat on the counter-attack however, chiefly through the pace of Redmond and Long and they almost struck against the run of play with 24 minutes left.

Cech made amends for his unfortunate own goal by keeping out a deflected Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg shot and then pouncing up to save Long’s follow-up with his feet.