Wenger, Grateful for Solitary Point after an Enthralling Draw at St. Mary’s.

Arsenal blew away chances of maintaining their point(s) advantage over Manchester City and Chelsea, after a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Southampton at St. Mary’s.

The ‘Gunners’, without the injured Aaron Ramsey, dropped points in the title race, allowing both second and third-placed teams a chance to reel in on them at the top, with City facing a trip to Tottenham and Chelsea at home to West Ham, both on Wednesday.

“They have difficult games as well and we took a least a point. It’s not enough but considering the situation at half-time, we have to be content with it,” said Wenger, 64, on losing ground to Man City and Chelsea, who both stand a chance to climb top today.

Arsene Wenger Believes Chelsea and City Also face an Uphill Task to Climb Top.
Arsene Wenger Believes Chelsea and City Also face an Uphill Task to Climb Top.

Jose Fonte opened scoring for ‘The Saints’, heading home Luke Shaw’s cross in a first-half largely dictated by the hosts.

Arsenal turned things around with two goals in four minutes early on in the second-half when Olivier Giroud adjusted his body to back-heel past goalkeeper Artur Boruc a Bacary Sagna’s low cross before Mesut Ozil squared a low shot to Santi Cazorla, whose effort found the corner of the goal.

Adam Lallana brought Southampton level, turning in a Jay Rodriguez pass.

Wenger’s men were reduced to ten men when Flamini was shown a straight red card for lunging into Morgan Schneiderlin with his two foot up.

Polish first choice Wojciech Szczesny then puled off a fine double save to keep out efforts from Shaw and Fonte in the closing stages of the encounter as the home side searched for all three point.

The French boss was however “contented” with the solitary point at the end of it all, saying: “You want the three points in every game but it is a difficult place Southampton. When you look at the overall record it happens sometimes away from home you take only one point.”

Arsenal struggled in the midfield in the absence of Welshman Ramsey and England international Jack Wilshere, with Mikel Arteta and Flamini finding themselves overrun.

“He (Ramsey) had a setback yesterday (Monday) in training. I hope not for too long but certainly not for Sunday’s game,” added Wenger.

Victories for City and Jose Mourinho’s ‘Blues Family’ could peg Wenger’s men back to third on Wednesday as the title run-in intensifies.