Welbeck and Walcott fire Arsenal past Saints

Danny Welbeck scored two and Theo Walcott grabbed a hat-trick as Arsenal mercilessly brushed Southampton aside 5-0 in their FA Cup fourth round tie at St. Mary’s.

Welbeck was making his first start after nine months out injured and he showed precious little sign of needing to ease himself back to fitness as he virtually single-handedly ended the game as a contest before half-time.

The former Manchester United man opened the scoring on 15 minutes when Lucas Perez played him in and Welbeck chipped the goalkeeper before watching the ball going into the back of the net via the underside of the crossbar.

The 26-year-old doubled the Gunners’ lead seven minutes later when he collected a superb throughball from Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain and although his first touch wasn’t perfect, it allowed him to steady himself before slotting the ball under the onrushing Harry Lewis.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, viewing from the stand as he began his four-match touchline ban for pushing the fourth official in their 2-1 win over Burnley last weekend, couldn’t hide his delight at Welbeck’s sharp, clinical finishing on his first start since May 2016.

Welbeck then turned provider, Perez again releasing him in the box with a neat pass and his cut-back saw Theo Walcott beat the napping Sam McQueen to the ball to toe-poke into the unguarded net from five yards out.

The Saints had made the same number of changes as Arsenal – 10 – from their last outing, the EFL Cup semi-final victory at Liverpool, but they were much less fluid than their opponents and defensively were vastly inferior.

With little to play for in the second period except pride, the game was played at a slower pace and it took until the 69^th minute for the visitors to extend their advantage, Oxlade-Chamberlain playing in Alexis Sanchez whose cutback found Walcott and the attacker calmly side-footed into the empty net.

Walcott completed his hat-trick at his former club with five minutes remaining, Sanchez on the break fed his team-mate and Walcott fired past the luckless Lewis.

But it is the performance of Welbeck which will most delight Wenger and the Arsenal fans, a timeless boost as the season approaches the business end.

Photo: Getty Images/Julian Finney

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