Arsenal are through to the fifth round of the FA Cup after hammering Southampton 5-0 on the south coast in Saturday’s late kick-off.

With Arsene Wenger in the stands the Gunners calmed their manager’s nerves as the returning Danny Welbeck, making his first start since May, opened the scoring on 16 minutes.

A second for the former Manchester United man followed shortly, before Theo Walcott, who returned from a calf strain, went on to grab a hat-trick to put the tie well beyond his former club.

Both managers made a whopping ten changes to their respective elevens, with eight graduates from the Saints academy, including those in the Arsenal XI, on the teamsheets.

The visitors started stronger and it wasn’t long before they were ahead, with Danny Welbeck clipping a well-timed chip over a helpless Harry Lewis to put Wenger’s side ahead and grab his first goal since April last year.

The Gunners continued to test the newly-formed defensive pairing of Jack Stephens and Florin Gardos, with the Romanian making his first start since January 2015.

Just over five minutes on from his first and Welbeck doubled his, and Arsenal’s, tally for the afternoon as he brought down a long ball from Chamberlain and slid it past Lewis into the bottom corner.

Having gone two down, Puel’s side finally seemed to wake and midfielder was given a golden chance to get his side back into the game when Arsenal ‘keeper David Ospina made a hash of a charge out of his goal, but the Dane fired over.

Minutes later and the EFL hero from Anfield, Shane Long, was through, but watched on as Ospina held his ground and saved well.

Wenger’s side made it three before the break when, after a lapse from the Saints handed the visitors the ball in the final third, Perez found Welbeck who, in turn, squared for Walcott who easily beat Sam McQueen at the far post.

Into the second half and the hosts seemed far more confident as they looked for a way back into the tie.

With his side looking much improved, Claude Puel looked to add some bite to the front line with both Nathan Redmond and Dusan Tadic coming off the bench.

However, with the introduction of Alexis Sanchez, the Gunners picked up a fourth as the Chilean, after a clever run, cut back from the by-line to find Theo Walcott who grabbed his second of the game.

The visitors rounded it off when, on the break, Alexis Sanchez held the ball up and squared for Walcott who picked up his hat-trick with ease.

For Claude Puel it will be a tough one to take, however, no one will be happier than the Frenchman to see that, after Tuesday’s trip to Swansea, the fixture list finally cools.

With Arsenal easily into the hat for the fifth round, here are FIVE things we learned from their fourth round trouncing of Southampton…

Day of returns

There were a whole host of returns at St. Mary’s on Saturday evening.

As well as both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott coming back to their former club, the latter was back after a calf strain whilst teammate Danny Welbeck picked up his first start since May.

Both will be delighted with their performances, a brace and an assist for Welbeck will have exceeded the expectations of anyone looking on and the hat-trick for Theo Walcott pushes his tally of goals for this term past last season’s total of 12.

From a Southampton perspective, defender Florin Gardos was back but questions will be raised over the depth of their back line.

Back to earth

Saints fans will have been brought back down to earth with a bang with the defeat.

Having got their league form back on track against Leicester last weekend and reaching an EFL Cup final on Wednesday, the week could have been capped perfectly with a win in the FA Cup.

Despite having received such a hiding, wins over Swansea and West Ham in their next two league outings, and a day out at Wembley on the horizon can send the memories of the Arsenal loss to the back of fans’ minds.

Welbeck faith

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was full of praise for his returning striker after the game, and rightly so.

The England international looked almost to be at the peak of his powers as opposed to coming back after months out.

The ex-United man battled for every ball and made a mockery of the Southampton back line on more than a few occasions, a big boost or Gunners fans.

Chop and Change

Both bosses made ten changes ahead of kick-off and, what that says about the FA Cup aside, Wenger will be more than happy with those that came in.

Claude Puel, however, will be slightly concerned at the sheer gap in quality between his first string and second string sides.

It can be argued that, with the likes of Florin Gardos and Lloyd Isgrove starting, it was even a cobbled together second string side, however, with Virgil van Dijk’s injury yet to have a time frame put on it, Puel will be using these games to assess the backup options he has.

No need to worry

Wenger will have been concerned having to sit in the stands due to his four match touchline ban, however, it turned into a rather calm afternoon.

With Arsenal fans singing “Steve Bould’s red army” towards the end, it would appear the Frenchman has nothing to worry about over the coming weeks.