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‘We had to be very strong in our minds'

After an hour of hard work and frustration at St Mary’s, we finally broke down a resolute Southampton defence thanks to a moment of magic by Alexis.

The Chile forward twisted away from two Saints defenders and finished beyond Fraser Forster, before Olivier Giroud’s late header secured the three points required to lift us up to fifth in the Premier League.

“We needed to work very hard because Southampton were up for it, the pace of the game was very high and we needed to be organised, patient, focused and very strong in our minds,” Arsene Wenger told Arsenal Player. “I felt we did that very well.

“We suffered a little bit in the first half but in the second half I felt we controlled the game very well and created chances on the break. Overall, I must congratulate the players because they have produced a great performance.”

We have now won all but one of our six matches since switching to a 3-4-3 formation, and we have also kept a clean sheet in three of our last four games.

“I am very pleased because for a while we conceded too many away goals, but recently we’ve tightened up our defence,” Wenger said. “That’s very good for the confidence of the team.

“I will certainly need to look at making some changes, but let’s not look at that now,” he added. “Let’s look at how everybody recovers because we play Saturday, Tuesday again. The only thing we can do is to give everything in every single game.”

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