Southampton vs Arsenal: Five things we learned as super sub Olivier Giroud earns Gunners a point

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Olivier Giroud was Arsenal's hero, climbing off the bench to earn a late point at Southampton.

Charlie Austin's early goal looked to have been enough to give the Saints a precious win at the bottom but the Frenchman headed in with just four minutes remaining to earn a share of the spoils.

Here's what we learned at St Mary's.

Five at the back isn’t – on paper at least - the most forward thinking or offensive-minded formation to deploy at home, but Saints proved today that such a system doesn’t have to be in any way negative.

The hosts instead were wonderfully fluid, getting in behind the ball when out of possession and then transitioning seamlessly into attack on the counter.

Austin and Dusan Tadic led the line brilliantly, the Serbian moving almost alongside the No 9 when on the front foot, giving Arsenal’s back three all sorts of problems all afternoon.

Speaking of which…

Wenger’s switch to the three at the end of last season was the catalyst for a fine run which ended in silverware at Wembley and has gone on to see them in good stead this term too.

But whatever was working then certainly didn’t today. Per Mertesacker, in for the injured Shkodran Mustaif, looked every one of his 33 years while Laurent Koscielny had one of his rare off days alongside the big German.

Tadic and Austin with Nathan Redmond and others supporting from deep were far too good for them, just as United were a week ago. Something to ponder for Wenger.

Austin scored for a third consecutive game against the Gunners and was the star of the show here.

Not blessed with outstanding pace or phenomenal technique you could have been forgiven for thinking the former non-league star would struggle at the very highest level.

But Austin has grown into a fine top tier striker, a proper old fashioned No 9, and one who again proved just how deadly he can be if given even the smallest of opportunities.

He took his goal with aplomb to continue his good scoring run. Will Gareth Southgate look at him next summer? He could do worse.

You can certainly see why Wenger continues to favour Alexandre Lacazette as his first choice striker.

When you fork out over £50m on one player you sort of have to but the Frenchman has delivered on his club record price tag for the most part and looked comfortable in the rough and tumble of the Premier League.

But here, and elsewhere in previous weeks, you felt that Giroud may have been the way to go.

The 31-year-old has the extra physicality that Lacazette simply doesn't have and used it to his advantage as he headed the equaliser with just minutes remaining.

He won’t be an every week starter anymore, but he needs more game time or – in a World Cup year – he would be fully justified in looking for a move to pastures new come January.

The Gunners would be poorer if he did so.

When the Danish international arrived in the summer of 2016 his signing was seen as something of a coup.

A player lauded by Pep Guardiola during his time at Bayern Munich the 22-year-old was tipped for big things on the south coast but he failed to hit those heights in an underwhelming first year in the English game.

That looks to be firmly behind him now. Hojbjerg was outstanding here today, dictating the player with ease, so often at the heart of everything the Saints did well. A superb performance and a deserved man of the match.