Second Half
At half-time Southampton introduced Gaston Ramirez (on for Steven Davis) and this resulted in a tweak to their system. Ramirez isn’t as disciplined in defending as Davis so he was often much further forward than the other two central midfielders (Ward-Prowse and Schneiderlin). This is shown by the fact that 77% of his passes were in the attacking half versus the teams average of 51% making him second only behind Jason Puncheon on 79%.
This attacking substitution also slightly solidified Southampton defensively, as there was less distortion of their defensive shape when the forwards came inside, shown below:
But as Arsenal had so much quality, this change by Southampton strengthened one area but weakened another. This left Santi Cazorla with more space to drift around in front of the two ‘shielding midfielders’ for Southampton – and he had two ‘second goal assists’ for Arsenal’s 5th and 6th (pass to Ramsey and pass to Vermaelen).
Conclusion
It was a dominate performance by Arsenal and they showed their superiority over a luckless Southampton, who scored two own goals. It has been a difficult start for the Saints, facing Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal in their first four fixtures and they now sit at the foot of the table without a point.
