Theo Walcott added pressure on Mikel Arteta by scoring against his former side for Southampton, who came away from the clash with a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Walcott moved to Arsenal from Southampton as a teenager in 2006 but he has since returned to his former club.
The forward showed he still has blistering pace as he raced past Arsenal defence before chipping the ball over Bernd Leno to put the Southampton ahead.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got the equaliser with his first goal since July to earn the gunners a share of the spoils. However, Walcott has backed Mikel Arteta to remain at the Emirates.
“The Emirates has changed but I feel like they’ve got the right man here for the job,” Walcott said. “If Arteta is to turn his side’s fortunates around, he may want to address the mentality of the squad.
“I felt a lot of fear in Arsenal tonight, to be honest,” Walcott explained. “They’re going through a very difficult time – credit to them they got the result tonight.
“But it shows how far we’ve come that we’re very disappointed to come away without the three points. We were going into this game with so much confidence, arrogance at times.”
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And Arteta hopes to use the 1-1 draw against fourth-placed Southampton as a means to kickstart the campaign.
“At the end if we lose the game again that would be a difficult one to take,” he said. “The players showed what we expect them to do. Some will be with more or less quality but at least the work is there
