“Honestly, everyone is telling me it was a penalty, but I’ve not yet seen it again”, Wenger told reporters.
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The Gunners skipper scored a spectacular equaliser to cancel out a Petr Cech own goal, and received treatment for a head wound following an aerial challenge that led to Arsenal‘s match-winning penalty. “It is a win after Watford and, if you can put a few wins together like we have, we will be more confident”.
Madley’s stoppage-time decision was a third penalty – all successfully converted – given against Southampton this season and Puel said: “I don’t like to speak of decisions of the referee but three penalties in four games is a bit much”.
“I am angry for my players”, countered Puel, who is yet to win a competitive game after taking over as the Saints manager in pre-season.
Saints players protested furiously but did not distract Cazorla, who tucked away the 94th-minute penalty. It’s very hard after the 90 minutes to take this penalty.
However, Arsenal secured an important victory which took them up to fifth place in an embryonic Premier League table ahead of Liverpool’s evening kick-off against champions Leicester City.
Arsenal gave debuts to late transfer window signings in Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez, acquired from La Liga clubs Valencia and Deportivo La Coruna respectively for a combined £52 million ($69 million, 61 million euros).
A late penalty ensured Arsenal ran out winners at the Emirates, capping an impressive comeback which Koscielny set in motion with an acrobatic finish in the first half.
Apart from a late Shane Long shot in the second half, the defensive pairing of Koscielny and Mustafi were pretty convincing. “In the second half I felt we dominated well again and created many unsafe situations but couldn’t score”, Wenger admitted.
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. “When you lose your first home game you can not afford to drop points in the second home game because it creates a little bit an anxiety level at home and that’s not what you really want”.
Akpom has scored goals at a good rate in his worldwide games for England and did well for Arsenal in pre-season, so do you think he should at least be on the bench for the PSG match?
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Southampton’s Dusan Tadic, right, scores a goal against Arsenal during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Southampton at Emirates stadium in London, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016.
