WALCING THE PLANK

Arteta's title charge thrown overboard

- JOHN CROSS

THIS time they left themselves with too much to do.

From 3-1 down and heading to a humiliating defeat, Arsenal summoned up the courage from somewhere to launch a fightback to at least salvage a draw.

Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka scored in the dying minutes, Leandro Trossard hit the crossbar and yet they could not stop themselves from dropping more precious points in the title race.

And they can only have themselves to blame for pressing the self-destruct button on a crazy, madcap night.

At the final whistle, Arsenal players slumped to the turf in despair knowing they had missed the chance to go seven points clear before Wednesday’s visit to Manchester City.

For the third game running, they dropped points and now you have to wonder what is in store for Arsenal at the Etihad as they appear to be losing their nerve at just the wrong time.

From Aaron Ramsdale’s howler to gift Southampton the lead after 27 seconds to Odegaard’s misplaced passes and Fabio Vieira and Rob Holding not looking up to the task, they just wilted under the pressure.