Arsenal:
                           Lehmann
                   Lauren Toure Cygan Cole
Ljungberg (van Persie 83) Vieira Edu (Cesc 65) Reyes (Pires 61)
                       Bergkamp Henry

Arsenal had most of the play in the first half, but lacked a cutting edge. Reyes brought the ball forward early on and passed to Henry on the edge of the box. He found Bergkamp's run into the area on the left with a pass through the wall of defenders, but someone managed to turn and get into position to intercept Dennis's square ball for Reyes who'd continued his run to near the spot.

10 minutes in and Freddie won a free-kick on the right which Dennis crossed in. Henry's run to the near post made him space for a free header but he placed it just short of that post.

Reyes's battling spirit saw him win the ball near the halfway line and hold onto it despite appearing to have lost it to a committed tackle on more than one occasion. He brought it forward but unfortunately the cross-field diagonal ball for Bergkamp's run into space down that side was far too strong.

Another good run from Reyes ended with a ball wide left for Henry. He made a run to the goal-line and chipped it over the keeper Niemi who had come to the near post. The goalied just managed to get a finger on it but it only caused to slow the ball down a bit. But as it fell invitingly in the goalmouth a defender was first to get there and he did well to hook it clear.

20 minutes in Southampton gave us a big scare when Nilsson's first time volley from out to the right of the box had Lehmann well beat but crashed back out off the far post.

10 minutes later Bergkamp went down a trifle easily in the box. A silly challenge it was, as Dennis, was near the edge of the area on the left and not posing an immediate threat (except in the sense that he always poses such a threat). Still, a debatable penalty I thought, not that I'd have minded if Henry had put it away instead of hitting the right hand post.

Bergkamp shot a foot wide of the the same post moments later, but it was a difficult first-touch chance as he was falling over, under attention from a couple of defenders, when he struck it. And a minute later Henry broke from our own half and slipped the ball to the right for Dennis only to see a much too strong first touch from the Dutchman, taking it too close to the keeper.

Niemi was strecthed as bit more 5 minutes before the break when Henry forced him to make a great diving save to touch the ball round his left hand post.

15 minutes into the second half Reyes had to go off with what looked like a pretty painful hand injury. Pires came on for the Spaniard, before another came on a few minutes later, Cesc replacing Edu.

Then halfway into the secodnhalf we took the lead thanks to a looping ball forward from Bergkamp which Henry (looking possibly a touch offside) controlled nicely and slotted home.

With 15 minutes to go Freddie missed a very good chance after another Henry break. He passed across the box to Ljungberg on the right but although Niemi had to save it, it was a poor shot.

With 10 minutes to go Saints got a corner on their left. A bunch of 3 of them made similar runs down the middle of the box, which our defence failed to deal with, which gifted one of them (Delap) the chance to grab the equaliser with a powerful header.

Up the other end Pires forced another save from Niemi, and then van Persie came on for Ljungberg. But almost straight away Southampton went ahead. This time it was free kick from their right, but the end result was much the same - a Delap header, from a bit further out, which went in just inside Lehmann's left hand post.

Arsenal responded well and besieged Southampton's goal for the remaining few minutes. But injury time had already started when Cesc found van Persie on the right hand side of the crowded box. The young Dutchman cut back onto his left foot and hit a sweet rising shot inside the far post to grab the point. There was still time for him to almost get a winner, when his run towards the near post allowed him to get a free glancing header onto a free-kick from the left wing, but unfortunately it went straight to Niemi.

Thanks to Chelsea's 4-1 win at West Brom, the table now shows us top but only on goal difference. At least United showed that last week was more a question of them being really up for beating us, rather than the start of a trend, as they went donw 2-0 at Portsmouth.