‘That goal is what Alexis is all about’

He still had it all to do - Mesut Ozil’s pass had found Alexis in the penalty area, but with Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens standing between the forward and Fraser Forster, his route to goal was blocked.

But with one swift movement, Alexis put both defenders on the floor, before calmly slotting past Southampton’s goalkeeper. A truly excellent finish.

“I think the goal that he has scored tonight showed what he is about,” Arsène Wenger said in his post-match press conference. “Very good technique in a short space, he scores important goals. And with very short technique he has invention in his head.

“He’s creative because he’s not fazed by anything and he’s surprised everybody in the stadium tonight by what he did. They expected him to take a shot and he is very quick, so overall he has done extremely well.

“I would say as well, Giroud came on and again the second goal was a very important goal for us tonight.”

A second win in four days has given us renewed hope of securing a place in the top four.

“I believe that I never questioned the character of my side,” Wenger added. “It’s not because you lose games that people expect you to win that you have no character.

“But it happened to us. We went through a bad patch, I believe that’s a good opportunity to show your character, how you come back and how you recover. Maybe the Man City game gave us confidence a little bit.

“Let’s not go too quickly to conclusions and focus and give everything on Saturday.”