Kieran Tierney signed off from his six-year stay at Arsenal with a goal in a 2-1 win against Southampton at St. Mary’s as relegated Saints set a new record for Premier League defeats.
No side in the competition had ever lost 30 in a season but Martin Odegaard’s drilled finish into the corner in the 89th minute sent them back to the Championship with a final humiliation to go with their meagre 12-point tally, on the day that new boss Will Still was unveiled to home fans.
The outgoing manager of Lens in Ligue 1 watched his new team from the stands and will have been encouraged when Ross Stewart scored his first goal for the club to equalise against the side that a for a third year in a row finished second.
For Mikel Arteta, seated nearby as he served a one-match ban, he was left to reflect on a campaign in which his side fell 17 points short of last season’s tally.
It will not have escaped Arteta that the 89 points the Gunners finished with 12 months ago would have been comfortably enough to win this season’s title.
In the end, far too many drawn matches and poor discipline – no team in the league received more than Arsenal’s six red cards – had cost them.
Raheem Sterling almost marked what was likely to be his final Arsenal appearance with a first league goal for the club after seven minutes, swinging a shot just wide after seven minutes. The Chelsea loanee’s future remains uncertain but it appears unlikely to include another year at the Emirates.
Southampton wanted a penalty when Yuki Sugawara’s drive was deflected behind off the arm of Declan Rice. Arsenal may have been fortunate that VAR concurred with referee Darren Bond’s on-field decision of no hand ball.
Mikel Merino then headed Gabrielle Martinelli’s cross against the bar as visiting fans were taunted with chants of “Tottenham Hotspur, they’ve won more than you.”
A wonderful first touch from Martinelli saw him bring down a high ball over the top before bringing an equally impressive save from former teammate Aaron Ramsdale, then from the resulting corner Oleksandr Zinchenko shot inches wide.
Arsenal’s pressure was mounting and a minute later they broke through. Ben White’s low cross from the right was beautifully pitched, and there at the near post sweeping across the ball from five yards out was Tierney who tapped in his first league goal since Boxing Day 2021 to the delight of travelling fans.
There had been no great gulf between the teams in the first half despite the chasm that divided them in the table, and so Saints’ equaliser 10 minutes after the break was far from undeserved.
Mateus Fernandes’ corner was delivered into a crowded six-yard box where Stewart rose powerfully above two defenders to head the ball back over his own shoulder and in past the dive of David Raya.
A wonderful block from Charlie Taylor denied Zinchenko as he unleashed a bullet from 12 yards, Bukayo Saka was denied a final-day goal by the offside flag, but Arsenal would have the final say, Odegaard sidestepping Will Smallbone and lashing in the winner to send his side out with a win.
