Southampton 1-2 Arsenal: Tierney gives us a moment on the final day

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction

So the 2024-25 season ended with a win, after a late goal from Martin Odegaard saw us take all three points when it looked like this game was going to fizzle out to yet another draw. When the captain stepped inside and fired home a powerful shot, I recognised that as the Odegaard we’ve come to expect, but one we haven’t quite seen enough of this season.

Where has that power been? I’m glad to see it back, I hope he stores it up for more of that next season, and to be honest, I was happy enough to wave goodbye to this campaign with a win. I know it was basically meaningless, second place was assured beyond some kind of cataclysmic goal-difference swing, and with all due respect to Southampton, I don’t think that was ever going to happen.

The last day of the season vibes were present in the team selection, with starts for Kieran Tierney at centre-half, Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back, and further forward Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri. There’s not much to say about the first half other than Mikel Merino should probably have scored but his heading wasn’t as accurate as it needed to be. He nodded one over, and one off the top of the crossbar, but that’s where we looked most dangerous.

Late in the half though, we got a great moment when Kieran Tierney – who I wrote about last week – tucked away nicely at the near post after a Ben White ball into the box. A goal on his final Arsenal appearance seems fitting for a player who has been a popular figure since his arrival in 2019. You could see from the celebrations how much it meant to him and his teammates, and afterwards Mikel Arteta revealed Tierney had that goalscoring feeling beforehand:

He said it yesterday, I’m going to score on my last Arsenal match and he’s done it! So, credit to him, a special thank you to him. He’s been part of the journey and he’s won with me. It’s true that he went to Sociedad for a few months, but it’s been a joy to work with him, a really special character. We wish him and his family all the very best. The doors of this club are open for him – he’s someone very, very liked at the club, in the dressing room and we want to wish him the best.

Southampton equalised early in the second half, a goal from a corner that we probably shouldn’t have conceded, but concentration levels/fatigue/not-giving-a-shit played a part. It looked soft, it was soft, we’ve conceded too many goals from set-pieces this season, and while Nicolas Jover gets plenty of credit for what we do up the other end, the report card for the defensive aspect of his job should read: Must Try Harder. I guess when you don’t have William Saliba and Gabriel, there’s some mitigation, but this has been an ongoing issue.

Today will be the first time we’ve started a Premier League game without either of Gabriel or Saliba since losing 5-0 at the Etihad back in August 2021. Ends a run of 148 consecutive league games where at least one of the two has been named in the starting XI.

— Harvey Downes (@harveydownes92.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T10:27:17.847Z

We made some changes, Arteta put on Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard, then Lewis-Skelly and Havertz, and finally Odegaard. There was one cleared off the line; Zinchenko had a couple of shots blocked; Ben White – aggrieved at not getting a free kick grabbed a bloke around the ankle (it’s good to see him back to full health!); but if this one had played out to a 1-1, it wouldn’t have been at all surprising.

Then, well please refer to the first paragraph when Odegaard found some spinach and that left foot cracked home a winner beyond Aaron Ramsdale who has had a miserable season at Southampton. It’s not his fault really, when you’re playing behind a defence that can’t defend, a midfield that is the very essence of mid, and a forward line with almost no goal threat, it’s not exactly a recipe for success. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with him this summer, because I can’t imagine he’ll be keen on the Championship, even if Southampton have made an interesting appointment as their new manager.

And with Arteta sitting in the stands with Josh Kroenke, the curtain came down on a season that most of us will be happy to see the back of. Finishing second is hardly terrible, we’ve been a lot worse in the past, but it’s all about the context. Expectations were high after the last two years, and we didn’t live up to them. Not to mention this is the first season in quite a while where I’ve felt we didn’t do our absolute best as a football club to achieve the kind of success we crave.

There will be time over the course of the summer to reflect on that properly, but we didn’t maximise the transfer windows, and there is a sense – for me at least – of an opportunity missed. Hence frustration, anger, however it plays out for you personally. To each their own. For me, I’m ready to turn over a new page, wipe the slate clean, and go again – because I do find some reassurance in the recent messaging about what we need to do this summer.

I don’t think a season where we have clearly regressed domestically has to be fatal. We can learn, we can do better, and I think it’s pretty obvious how that needs to happen. This isn’t some kind of intricate puzzle we need to work out. As the manager said last week, it’s time for the boys upstairs to do their work. The title winners scored almost 20 goals more than we did, so we have to fix that problem, turn some of those draws into wins while maintaining the defensive foundations, and there’s no reason why we can’t challenge again next season.

A little bit of a rest and recharge wouldn’t go amiss, although Mikel Arteta was asked when his preparations for the new season begin. He said:

Now! Because tomorrow we already have some things that we are discussing and making decisions. Everything that is planned for pre-season and the first few weeks of the season has already been done two or three months ago, so we are now really good. And the moment I start to think about that, I feel goosebumps and excitement, and this is a really good sign always.

For now though, it’s over to Andrea Berta and the man with the chequebook. There are some players who will be saying goodbye over the coming weeks too. Tierney going back to Celtic, Jorginho to Flamengo and maybe one or two more. The two loan players – Sterling and Neto – will go back to Chelsea and Bournemouth respectively, neither of whom gave us very much at all. Don’t cry because it’s over, cry because it happened in the first place. Or something. Lots to reflect on for those who are in charge of putting next season’s squad together.

And breathe …

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Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now, but as ever we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you today. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

The pod should be out mid-morning, and later this afternoon we’ll have the final episode of The 30 on Patreon, recapping all the weekend’s Premier League action.

Until then, have a good one.

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