Southampton 3-2 Arsenal: Danny Ings brace and Charlie Austin winner as Saints end Gunners unbeaten run
Arsenal lost for the first time in 23 games as Southampton won on Ralph Hasenhuttl's home debut courtesy of three headers in a 3-2 victory.
The returning Danny Ings and substitute Charlie Austin did the damage, all with their head, as they cancelled out two equalisers from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the second via a massive deflection.
Although they were twice pegged back, Saints showed a renewed vigour and purpose in Hasenhuttl's home debut as he seemingly made an immediate impact at St Mary's.
The hosts were in front when a terrific Targett delivery beat Koscielny at the near post for Ings to head home in the 21st minute.
Arsenal found themselves level just before the half-hour mark through Mkhitaryan's header. The visitors worked the ball to find Monreal free on the left wing before his cross was met by a firm header from the Armenia international and into the bottom corner.
Southampton regained the lead on the stroke of half-time through another superb Ings header.
The hosts worked the ball to the right wing where Nathan Redmond found himself with time to pick out Ings in the penalty area, who directed the ball into the far top corner leaving Bernd Leno stranded.
Arsenal once again levelled eight minutes into the second half.
Substitute Lacazette dispossessed the home defence on the edge of their own area before laying off to Mkhitaryan to let fly, whose effort took a huge deflection past a wrong-footed McCarthy.
Southampton went 3-2 up in the 85th minute through substitute Charlie Austin.
Austin, who has a good scoring record against Arsenal, nodded into an unguarded net after Leno had failed to reach Long's cross in from the right.
Southampton 3-2 Arsenal - Opta stats
- Southampton picked up their first win in all competitions since beating Crystal Palace in September, ending a streak of 14 games without a victory.
- Arsenal have lost their first competitive match since August versus Chelsea, ending a run of 22 games without defeat.
- Southampton are the first team to score three headed goals in a Premier League game since West Brom did so versus Swansea in December 2016. Saints last achieved this themselves in October 2001 (vs Ipswich).
- Arsenal haven’t led at half-time in any of their 17 Premier League games so far this season. The Gunners have scored a league-high 27 second half goals in 2018-19.
- Southampton’s Danny Ings scored two headed goals in an English league game for the first time in his career. They were also Southampton’s first two headed goals in the competition this season.
- Southampton’s Charlie Austin has scored in all five of his Premier League games against Arsenal - only Raheem Sterling versus Bournemouth (6 games) has a better 100% record of scoring against a specific opponent in Premier League history.
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan has scored more Premier League goals for Arsenal in 25 games (6) than he did for Man Utd in 39 appearances (5 goals).
- Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored his first Premier League brace and his first in the top five European leagues since August 2015 for Borussia Dortmund versus Borussia Mönchengladbach.