This afternoon Southampton will travel to North London to take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Recent history of the fixture does not bode well for the visiting Saints, who have failed to beat the Gunners from the last 11 meetings between the sides.
Perhaps they can take solace, though, from the fact that their last victory against Arsene Wenger's team came back on this very day in 2002.
Back then they had one of the Premier League's most in-form strikers in James Beattie. The England frontman went into the match at the St Mary's Stadium having scored six goals in as many outings.
However, it would be one of Arsenal's centre-forwards that would break the deadlock in the 36th minute as Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord linked to fashion out a chance for Dennis Bergkamp to score from inside the area.
The home side responded positively to falling behind and they were level before the break thanks to Beattie. His strike from 30 yards out proved to be too powerful for David Seaman, who had only recently returned to action from a neck injury.
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The game's major turning point occurred in the 57th minute when Arsenal defender Sol Campbell was adjudged to have fouled debutant Agustin Delgado inside the box. Campbell was handed his marching orders by referee Paul Durkin, while Beattie stepped up to convert the resultant penalty.
Southampton would then go on to make the most of their numerical advantage eight minutes later. This time it was Delgado that would score his first goal in Southampton colours when he nodded the ball in from close range.
Frenchman Robert Pires came off the bench to reduce the arrears 10 minutes from time when he beat Saints goalkeeper Antti Niemi at the second attempt. It set up a grandstand finish and Arsenal pushed hard in search of the goal that would secure them a share of the spoils, but the hosts held out to earn all three points.
SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi; Dodd, Lundekvam, Svensson, Bridge; Fernandes (Telfer), Oakley, Delap, Marsden; Beattie, Delgado (Ormerod)
ARSENAL: Seaman; Luzhny, Campbell, Cygan, Cole; Wiltord, Vieira, Edu (Toure), Ljungberg (Jeffers); Bergkamp (Pires), Henry
Liam Apicella
