Southampton 3-2 Arsenal: 5 Talking Points

#2 Laurent Koscielny's rusty return

Koscielny's first Premier League start since April was not an easy ride

First off, it's great to see Laurent Koscielny back in the fray for Arsenal. He's the club's best defender, after all. 33 in September, it seems like he's aged five years since sustaining that horrible Achilles injury against Atletico Madrid in April. However, this was not a nice return to England's top-flight. Far from it.

From minute one, he was eyed as a potential target to expose by Southampton's attackers and in fairness, it's understandable. He made his first-team return on Thursday after some u23s minutes under his belt and it'll take a few weeks before establishing full match sharpness.

There was a brief injury scare early on after Ings' late challenge, catching Koscielny's ankle after he'd played the ball and leaving him in pain on the turf. He shook it off and continued, but just minutes later, Ings was back for more. This time, it was Matt Targett's excellent cross which evaded Koscielny and allowed the 26-year-old a welcome return to the fray after injury issues of his own.

As Alan Smith on commentary said, had Koscielny been playing for the past month or longer, this chance wouldn't have ended in a goal. These are the high standards that he should be held to - attempting to control in mid-air, rather than just clearing it, is something you can do after an extended spell on the sidelines.

Southampton's second was almost a carbon copy, but from the opposite side. Redmond's cross lofted above Koscielny's header attempt and Ings - hovering alongside Lichtsteiner - made no mistake to loop another header into the corner.

Their third, was a combination of defensive errors the typical Arsenal way. Bernd Leno misjudged the cross' trajectory and with Koscielny running back to try clearing, the German's dive missed the ball, allowing Austin a free open header at goal. 3-2.

Even having conceded three goals, Koscielny's match statistics looked like this:

3 completed tackles, clearances and aerial duels won, two blocked shots, 1 interception, two fouls committed, 92.4% accuracy (92 passes). It'll be interesting to see how he settles back into the Gunners' backline, but it's clear that even with their injuries - they need to improve.