World News – GB – Arsenal come from behind to beat Southampton to finish in the top four

Arsenal came from behind for the first time in a Premier League game this season to beat Southampton and get to the top within five points of four

The Gunners saw their FA Cup defense with a fourth-round loss at St Mary on Saturday, however, returned three days later to claim a 3-1 win

Southampton looked on course to fend off the visitors one more time when Stuart Armstrong shot them forward with a beautiful volley in the third minute

But Arsenal would continue during the break when Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka struck and Alexandre Lacazette provided the points

The win puts Mikel Arteta’s side in eighth place over Southampton, just five points behind London rivals West Ham, who are fourth after a win at Crystal Palace in the early evening

Arteta has still not been able to call Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is absent for personal reasons However, he made five changes as of Saturday when Saka and Lacazette scored a goal on their recall

Lacazette should have opened the classification within 50 seconds, but couldn’t beat Alex McCarthy in the Southampton goal that Granit Xhaka had played

Instead, the Saints hit forward from a well-crafted corner when James Ward-Prowse arrived for an unmarked Armstrong to bring home a superb finish

The visitors did not drop their heads and were straight shortly afterwards Pepe – who let Armstrong run off of him to score – made amends by collecting another good Xhaka pass and holding his husband back to equalize

As both sides wanted to take the lead, Bernd Leno made a good stop to fend off a header from Che Adams

It would be Arsenal to take the lead at break when Lacazette punched a ball through to Saka, who easily circled the oncoming McCarthy and showed good composure in his fifth win of the season

The England international then fielded the third, snatched an inch-perfect Crossfield pass from Cedric Soares and crossed Lacazette to tap it

The win is a fifth out of Arsenal’s last six Premier League games after turning around in form that started with a Boxing Day win over Chelsea

Arteta refused to be convinced of his ambitions for the season the last time he spoke to the media, but with Manchester United soaring at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, that win certainly means the Spaniard will keep looking instead of going down

Conversely, Southampton slips to 11th Place and after the good start to the campaign has only won one of the last seven in the league

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