England’s Danny Welbeck admitted he had been dreaming of returning to first-team action and scoring crucial goals for Arsenal again after making his first start for the Gunners this season in an Emirates FA Cup romp against Southampton.
Welbeck has only made three substitute appearances this season after suffering a serious knee injury but he produced the goods against the Saints, scoring two first-half goals to put Arsenal on the way to the fifth round.
Fellow Three Lion Theo Walcott also bagged a hat-trick as Arsenal put on a rampant display against a much-changed Southampton side from their midweek win against Liverpool in the League Cup.
“It was so good to be back out on the pitch after such a long time out,” said Welbeck.
“It has been a horrible few months, particularly with the injury just before but it was great to be back and scoring goals.
“It’s what I love doing and I enjoyed them both. These are the moments that keep you going and because I had the experience of coming back from an injury before I knew what to expect.
“The end situation was to be back out on the pitch, scoring goals and I hope to do it many more times going forward.”
Welbeck chipped Saints keeper Harry Lewis for his first goal on 15 minutes before poking in a second seven minutes later after superbly controlling a long pass from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Walcott tapped in Welbeck's pass shortly before half time and then steered in a fourth after the hour, following good build up play from substitute Alexis Sanchez. The former Saints man then stroked home late on to complete the dominant win.
Walcott, who started his career at Southampton, revealed the Saints had been Arsenal’s bogey side in recent campaigns, earlier this season the Gunners were knocked out of the League Cup by Claude Puel’s men.
But after bagging his fifth treble for the Gunners and moving to 99 careers goals for the north London club, Walcott is convinced Arsenal’s fast start was the key factor in the win.
“They tend to be our bogey side and we know our difficult it is going to be coming here but from the word go we were ready,” said Walcott.
“We have been suffering from poor starts lately but came out of the blocks running and Danny Welbeck came back with a bang and it’s also great to get a clean sheet which we always aim for.
“It’s not pay back for me at all scoring against Southampton. I had some great memories at this club, they are a club who will always be in my heart, I enjoyed playing football here but I enjoyed tonight. Southampton is a strong team and I will always cheer them on.
“We made a lot of changes today and it is what it is but we as players managed to do our talking on the pitch and give the manager a headache.”
Southampton: 41 Harry Lewis, 15 Cuco Martina, 24 Jack Stephens, 5 Florin Gardos, 33 Sam McQueen, 18 Harrison Reed, 4 Jordy Clasie, 23 Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, 39 Josh Sims, 27 Lloyd Isgrove, 7 Shane Long
Substitutes: 22 Nathan Redmond for Long 65, 11 Dusan Tadic for Isgrove 64
Substitutes not used: 28 Stuart Taylor, 3 Maya Yoshida, 21 Ryan Bertrand, 14 Oriol Romeu, 8 Steven Davis
Manager: Claude Puel
Arsenal: 13 David Ospina, 24 Hector Bellerin, 20 Shkodran Mustafi, 16 Rob Holding, 3 Kieran Gibbs, 15 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 55 Ainsley Maitland-Niles, 14 Theo Walcott, 31 Jeff Reine-Adelaide, 9 Lucas Perez, 23 Danny Welbeck
Substitutes: 7 Alexis for Welbeck 65, 17 Alex Iwobi for Reine-Adelaide 72
Substitutes not used: 26 Emiliano Martinez, 25 Carl Jenkinson, 5 Gabriel, 4 Per Mertesacker, 18 Nacho Monreal
Manager: Arsene Wenger
Goals: Welbeck 15, 22, Walcott 35, 69, 84
Referee: Kevin Friend
Attendance: 31,288
