Saints V Arsenal The Verdict Monday, 17th Dec 2018 09:38 This was a game that had everything, but more importantly it had the one thing that has been lacking over the last year at St Mary's a home win ! Ralph Hasenhuttl's first game in charge saw the fans in positive mood for the first time in perhaps two years, although most were hopeful for a good performance rather than a point or even three. Hasenhuttl sprung a surprise with his team line up playing three at the back and the welcome return of Danny Ing's. From the kick off you could see that working with the new manager has already benefited, in the match build up I said that there was not much wrong with this squad that Motivation, Organisation & Fitness could not put right and it was clear right from the start that the team had a different attitude, of course things aren't going to be put completely right overnight but you sensed that some progress had been made. Arsenal are still no mugs though and could have gone ahead when Yoshida lost his man early in the game, in fairness this was about the only mistake the Japanese defender made and he played a sterling role alongside Jan Bednarek who was the BBC's man of the match making more clearances and interceptions than anyone else in the game and Jannik Vestergaard also starting to show what he is capable of. In the 20th minute Saints took the lead and it was a peach of a cross from Matt Targett that found Danny Ings who headed home to send St Mary's wild, from then on the game went one way or the other and it was end to end stuff with the Gunners enjoying more possession but Saints attacking with pace with Nathan Redmond leading the way. But it was Arsenal who scored next just before the half hour mark and some thought that this was the beginning of the end for Saints, but it was nothing of the sort. Usually it is Saints who concede just before the end of either half, but this was not going to be the case and on the stroke of half time Ing's got a second, another header from a great cross, this time from Redmond who picked him out from short range with pinpoint precision when it would have been easier to under or over hit a cross. Saints leading at the break the crowd were wowed at half time and their was a buzz not seen for a long time, but in an enthralling second half it was the visitors who scored first to equalise, Oriol Romeu goy caught in possession, some blamed him but I thought he had little other options, with the ball caught under his feat and pressed by Arsenal players, the ball fell to Mkhitaryan unmarked and his shot took a couple of cruel deflections to send McCarthy the wrong way. But this just seemed to spur Saints on even when Redmond in my opinion a candidate for man of the match and a constant threat to the Arsenal defence had to go off injured and on came Shane Long. This was a game made for Long and he thought he had scored, but the goal was ruled offside much to the astonishment of the Saints support although TV replays later showed that it was the correct decision. Long was soon joined by Charlie Austin on 71 minutes and some were worried that with Ings and Redmond gone our attacking threat was over, but this is a squad game and perhaps both players role in that squad is as impact subs and that they certainly had in the 85th minute when Long was sent clear down the right, he crossed, the third pinpoint cross of the game, Leno couldn't get it and Charlie Austin headed home. That left Saints with five minutes of normal time and five minutes of injury time to hang on, but they were going to do no hanging on, they were strong and resolute and unlike a year ago in the same fixture there would be no 90th minute equaliser to break our hearts. The team finished the game as they had started it with motivation, resolve, confidence and organisation and saw out these final ten minutes with relative ease. Leaving St Mary's was a pleasure for the first time in a long time, the fans were in ecstasy, people whooped and high fived, they knew that they had seen a great game, but more importantly they knew they had seen a team with a different mindset, who were no longer scared of playing There is still a lot of work to do, we still need to tighten up at the back, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and we can go into the second half of the season with confidence, something we couldn't say a week ago. I have seen comments over the past few months from some Saints fans questioning how anyone could pay good money to watch "that Sh*t" as they describe it, the answer was there on Sunday, we go for days like these, we go through the bad times so the good times taste better.
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