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Southampton (0) 0 - 2 (1) Arsenal

The Dell, Saturday 15th March 1997

FA Carling Premiership

Scorers:
                              Hughes 41   Shaw 72
A very good result indeed for an Arsenal side missing many first choice players. Injuries to Merson, Anelka, Seaman and Dixon, and the absences also of Wright and Keown, meant starts for Hughes, Shaw, and Parlour who once again did very well covering for Dixon. Also John Lukic's poisoned toe gave Lee Harper his debut. Although he didn't have a great deal to do he did it fine, and had to react well to save with his feet from Le Tissier. He'd have been glad, presumably, to see none of Le Tissier's 4 or more free kicks from dangerous positions find the target. Harper's good debut bodes well, but there is also talk of an imminent signing in Austrian keeper Manninger (sp?), which is probably good news given that Bartram will presumably want to follow his loan spell at Wolves with a move, and he's never shown much promise of threatening Lukic's second spot never mind Seaman.

Hughes and Shaw got a goal apiece, Hughes's coming a few minutes before the break when the Soton keeper, under pressure from Adams, failed to deal with a cross (corner?) and Hughes turned it in from close range.

Shaw fired home from the edge of the area after good work from Parlour and a shot from Hughes. Just after this Shaw was replaced by Garde - a tactical switch given the 2 goal cushion rather than any comment on Shaw.

Arsenal's defence was pretty solid with Marshall looking solid alongside Adams and Bould. Lee Dixon on Capital Radio gave Man of the Match to Vieira, who got into a bit of a tussle with Le Tissier at one point and although obviously completely innocent of any wrongdoing (from my vantage point in my front room listening to the radio) Patrick could probably think himself lucky to have escaped with only a booking. Jonathan Pearce gave MOM to Parlour - perhaps Dixon was swayed by not wanting to give his replacement too much encouragement!

Meanwhile Man Utd beat Wednesday and Newcastle thrashed Coventry, but Liverpool's draw at the City Ground means that we've caught up on points with them (see table). Pool have a game in hand and come to Highbury on Monday week when Wright will presumably be back. Merson is out but with luck Anelka might be ready by then.

The new keeper story seems pretty certain - he may be arriving in the next few days, but there was also talk on the radio of stories from Italy of Arsenal's move for Marcel Desailly. The story is that Desailly has been approached by Arsenal and another club (Barcelona?) and will be making his mind up between them. Fingers crossed.....

report by Rupe

More reports to follow

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