Izuchukwu OkosiArsenal were held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton in the Premier League for the first time this season on Sunday and look fatigued from their Europa League exploits.
Heading into the game, the Gunners were four points adrift of champions Manchester City but that lead has been cut to two points albeit Arsenal are still atop the league table.
The Gunners came into this fixture with nine wins from their previous 10 Premier League games and looked set to take their victories into double figures during a rampant opening first 45 minutes on the south coast.
Former captain Granit Xhaka fired Arsenal into the lead after just 11 minutes with his weaker right foot at St Mary’s following an excellent cross from Ben White and the Gunners created chances to extend their advantage in the remainder of the first half.
Stuart Armstrong levelled for the Saints with 65 minutes left on the clock.
There were some calls against Arsenal that were controversially overlooked by the referee which Mikel Arteta stopped short of commenting about insisting post match that he will do so at a later time.
Arsenal had been in action on Thursday night in the Europa League, beating PSV Eindhoven 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
The reverse leg of the tie will hold this Thursday away at 8pm Nigerian time.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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