Arsenal's 50th unbeaten run in the Premier League was drowned in the bombardment of public opinion in the "war of fast food".

Attention seems to have shifted from Arsenal's imposing record to the more gimmicky post-match clash of players.

Overall, the draw at Old Trafford was a slight demoralisation for Arsenal.

Playing aside, Arsenal should be satisfied.

It is reminiscent of the previous nine-game winning streak, and the lead was twice in the game and finally was forced to draw by Manchester United, although it was at Old Trafford, but it still made the Arsenal players feel very dissatisfied.

Arsenal's draw with Manchester United has benefited Chelsea.

Chelsea, who won the tenth round, closed the gap on Arsenal from seven to five, while widening the gap on Manchester United from six to eight.

In the Carabao Cup in midweek, Arsenal went to Manchester again to challenge Manchester City, Wenger sent a large number of young players and substitutes to compete in the League Cup, Qin Xiong was not in the squad at all, and he had to deal with the next league and Champions League games.

Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-1 away to advance to the next round, and the young players in the squad have been properly trained.

With Silva still injured, Arsene Wenger fielded a midfield combination of Patrick Vieira Fabregas and Qin Xiong at home to Southampton at the weekend.

Thierry Henry is clearly back from a week ago, Pire has just returned, there were no frequent outbreaks in the game, Ljungberg was conscientious, and the biggest highlights of Arsenal in the game came from Qin Xiong and Thierry Henry.

But the course of the game was full of twists and turns.

Qin Xiong took the lead in assisting Thierry Henry to score in the 20th minute of the first half, and then an unexpected picture appeared.

Southampton's attacking duo, James Beatty. Kevin Phillips actually scored a goal each before the end of the first half to complete the comeback!

On the way back to the dressing room, Wenger kept his head down thoughtfully.

In the first half, Arsenal's midfield system went wrong. Mainly in defense.

It has nothing to do with Qin Xiong!

It doesn't matter if behind him is Cesc Fabregas or Patrick Vieira. If Qin Xiong senses that his teammates behind him are about to step forward, or if the forward line needs more threats from behind, then Qin Xiong will unload his organizational task and step forward decisively.

But in terms of player characteristics, Vieira's forward positivity and Cesc Fabregas's forward positivity go hand in hand.

This upsets the balance of complementarity and synergy between Arsenal's two midfielders in the past.

In the past, Vieira's partner is Parlour, Vieira is a character who can attack and defend both offensively and defensively, but this is not absolutely safe. Because even a world-class midfielder can't guarantee that every time he rushes to the front, he will be able to attack, so that the opponent can't instigate a quick counterattack.

And when the opponent plays a counterattack, especially in England, a very fast-paced field, it is basically difficult for the back to go to the front to chase back to the penalty area to form a barrier.

Therefore, whether it is Parlor next to Vieira, or Silva in the last two seasons, it has become a stable front barrier at the back, at least to ensure that Arsenal's defense is counterattacked even if it is beaten. It also has the defensive hierarchy of the Iron Triangle at the back.

But when Cesc Fabregas and Vieira are paired together, the two move forward together. After being counterattacked by the opponent, then the back waist line is completely undefended.

Not to mention that the two actually clashed in terms of responsibilities in the offense after half time.

This is an important reason why Arsenal was defeated by the opponent's counterattack in the first half, there is no reasonable defensive level, the opponent is too easy to counterattack, as long as you grasp the timing of the pass, you can easily break through the defense line, and it has little to do with the individual ability of the defender, it is a strategic failure!

Arsene Wenger was a headache for that.

If Vieira is not involved in the attack and plays the role of Silva or Parlour, Vieira will certainly not be happy, he has the ability to play in midfield and assist, why not?

But it is absolutely impossible for Cesc Fabregas to play a sapper-defensive midfielder, and even if Bregas is willing, Wenger is afraid that he will not be able to sleep.

Either way, with an eye on how the game changed, Arsene Wenger gave Vieira an order at half-time to keep him at the back to make sure there were no more problems in defence!

Vieira is focused on the overall situation, so he naturally agreed without any objections, and as soon as Silva returns from injury, he will naturally return to his former role.

Arsenal's defensive performance immediately improved in the second half, with Southampton, who came to Highbury to gain a foothold on the counter-attack, did not get too many chances, and as time went by, their attacking motivation became less and less.

Arsenal, on the other hand, began to put pressure on their opponents with long-range shots.

If Pire is in peak condition, Arsenal can break through the opponent's iron bucket formation through more delicate ground passes, but when Pire can only play a steady contribution to passing and receiving the ball, Arsenal can only rely on individual breakthroughs, long-range shots, and set-pieces to break through the dense defense.

When Arsenal fans began to worry again, Arsenal equalised in the 69th minute through Thierry Henry's long-range shot from outside the box, which was a world wave.

4 minutes later, Henry was brought down by the opponent on the left side of the penalty area and won a free kick, and Qin Xiong scored a free kick!

Arsenal scored two goals in five minutes to turn the score around!

The score did not change in any way, in fact, before Qin Xiong broke the goal, Southampton's substitution adjustment was to strengthen the defense, but Arsenal knocked on the door with a free kick, and Southampton had no choice but to swallow the reversal but suffered the fate of the reversal.

Wenger was only excited for a short time after the game, and then fell into a long period of thought.

Qin Xiong integrated into Arsenal and began to become a key man in Arsenal's attack.

He'll provide assists and score key goals when the team needs someone to step up.

And what about his teammates?

Cesc Fabregas is also improving, and the young Spanish talent has made it impossible for Wenger to ignore his existence and look forward to his future.

The biggest question in Wenger's mind is: how can Cesc Fabregas and Patrick Vieira coexist?

When Qin Xiong replaced Bergkamp, his position was unassailable.

Whether it is Vieira or Cesc Fabregas, it cannot be said that they cannot play in the front midfield, but they obviously cannot be better than Qin Xiong's in the forward midfield position, and all the players in the Arsenal team, and no one else can compete with Qin Xiong.

So Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas can only play in central midfield or in midfield, but they seem to have mutually exclusive or countervailing effects in the same area, not to mention actively promoting each other, and it may be difficult to achieve even the most basic balance of coexistence.

Arsene Wenger will not jump to conclusions, he is willing to watch for a while, especially given that Vieira will be 30 years old in two years' time, will he be willing to change his style of play and focus on defending at the tipping point of his career? If he wanted to, then he and Fabregas would have a theoretical basis for coexistence.

Arsene Wenger praised Qin Xiong after the game, saying: "He integrated into Arsenal faster than I expected, Thierry Henry, who scored twice? I'm not surprised by Thierry Henry's watch, if there's a striker who scores at least 30 goals in a season and that's the most normal thing, it's Thierry Henry, and if he scores, would anyone be surprised? So I think we should talk about Qin Xiong, he has adapted well to the Premier League and started to make a name for himself here, his number of games in the last two months is extremely dazzling, if you have seen Qin Xiong's training attitude and understand his professionalism, then maybe we should not be surprised, but for young players, I think we still need to give them more encouragement and trust, I believe Qin Xiong will be better. ”

News updates in the UK are fast, as this is the hub of European news, and the news of the game against Manchester United a week ago has gone unnoticed a week later.

Critics and contributors to a number of Fleet Street media outlets agreed with Wenger's remarks.

"Qin Xiong has become a key man for Arsenal!"

"3:2 Bolton, 2:2 Manchester United, 3:2 Southampton, except for those games in which he scored and Arsenal bloodied the opponent, Qin Xiong scored key goals in the above three games, and his goal brought Arsenal at least 5 points, which seems to be less, but considering that he missed 4 Premier League games in August, in fact, he only played 6 Premier League games, but he was able to directly grab 5 points for the team, excluding the assists and goals he contributed in other winning games, We can say that Mr. MVP in last season's Champions League final has become an important member of Arsenal's road to defending the league title! (To be continued......)