Former Premier League referee suggests Southampton could have secured a draw from the match

Southampton's 3-1 defeat against Arsenal in the Premier League had a lot of talking points from the match. While there were some positives in Southampton's encouraging and impressive performance until the hour mark, there were some disappointment as well. The huge positives included the rock solid defensive performance from Russell Martin's side alongside the fact that the Saints scored in three consecutive league matches and managed to take the lead against Premier League title favourites Arsenal.

On the other hand, their performance in the final half an hour of the match was far from great and now a former Premier League referee has given an opinion which suggests that the Saints could have secured a draw from this match. Arsenal's second goal was scored by Gabriel Martinelli, however it seemed that Mikel Merino had attempted a header on Bukayo Saka's assist in an offside position. After the match, former Premier League referee Mark Halsey gave a surprising opinion which suggested that Arsenal's 2-1 goal should not have stood and Southampton would have secured an important draw from this away match.

Mark Halsey has fourteen years of refereeing in the Premier League, thus, it is a significant opinion which could have changed the result of the match. However, the on-field referee didn't evaluated Mikel Merino's interference on Saka's assist and decided to reward Gabriel Martinelli's goal, which completed Arsenal's comeback after being 1-0 down. While Bukayo Saka scored a third goal in the match as well, still that decision was a turning point in the match and reduced Southampton's chances of avoiding a defeat.

However, the match resulted in another 3-1 defeat for Southampton, who now need to focus on improving their shortcomings in both attack as well as defence to start taking some much needed wins in their Premier League campaign.