in stoppage time for raising his hands following an altercation with Cedric Soares.

Arsenal remains sixth in the standings, 13 points from Tottenham in the fourth Champions League place with six games remaining. Southampton stayed in the relegation zone with 28 points from 32 matches.

This game was the clearest indication yet that Arsene Wenger is now prioritizing the Europa League — with victory in the competition securing a route into the Champions League.

The Arsenal manager made seven changes from Thursday's win over CSKA Moscow. Wilshere and Mesut Ozil started on the bench and Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey were rested completely.

Southampton had the best of the early chances, Dusan Tadic drifting in behind before picking out James Ward-Prowse, who could not mark his 200th Southampton appearance with a goalas his effort was cleared off the line by Hector Bellerin.

Mark Hughes saw his side take the lead as Tadic fed Cedric out wide, with the full-back's low cross to the near post left by both Petr Cech and Skhodran Mustafi. That allowed Long to nip in between the pair and sweep home his first goal since Jan. 2 in the 17th minute.

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Aubameyang scored for Arsenal after going 1-0 down.

Arsenal was misfiring until Aubameyang started and finished a flowing move in the 28th minute with a deft finish past the onrushing Alex McCarthy following Welbeck's inventive flick. The Gabon striker has now scored six goals in his first eight league games.

The equalizer brought a shift in momentum, and Welbeck failed to make telling contact