Southampton 1 - 1 Arsenal: Southampton drop points against struggling underdogs Arsenal

I had a feeling we'd perform like this:

My worry for this game is that we simply won't press as hard or play with as much urgency as we did in the second half against Newcastle because we've only had a couple days of rest. Following up high-energy performances with lethargic performances has been a common occurrence with us.

Apparently, we had won our four previous league games and were looking like we might be finding some consistency at an important time in the season. Tonight, though, we saw no evidence that we were improving and, yet again, made an average team look far better than they are (see games against Aston Villa, Bradford and Wigan for further evidence).

Inevitably, the response will be that we must sign new players, that our current players are not good enough, etc. but the problem extends further than that. New players are necessary but they aren't going to suddenly add some consistency to this team. They're not going to change the mentality of the team.

When we talk about mentality, it's usually in reference to lacklustre performances in situations that require improved performances i.e. when we're losing, or on a bad run of form. In this instance, though, I think the problem with our mentality is a lack of bravery and belief. When I look back on those game against Bradford, Wigan and tonight's game, we look like a team that's too scared to lose. Perhaps a better word to use would be timid. We look scared to take games by the scruff of the neck and play like the favourites.

There's no other way I can explain these underdog tactics we seem to be deploying as of late.

Wigan were in the bottom three when we played them and hadn't won in seven games, but we spent the whole game with ten men behind the ball, soaking up pressure and barely posing an attacking threat.

Southampton were near the bottom three when we played them and were also on a poor run of form, but we spent the majority of the game with nine men behind the ball, leaving Cazorla and Walcott isolated up the other end of the pitch, barely posing an attacking threat and just about keeping Southampton out at the other end.

That's how underdogs play. That's how teams struggling for points and scrapping for any positive result plays. That's not how a team with four wins behind them and looking to get into the top four should be playing.

I'm struggling to find any logic in how we played today. Why were we standing off Southampton? Why are we leaving guys who have no chance of holding the ball up 20-30 yards away from anybody? Even in the second half, things were the same. We brought on Giroud, but he was also isolated. Why was nobody getting up the pitch to support Giroud? Look at what Southamtpon did: every time a ball came into Lambert, a runner from midfield was within a couple of yards from him waiting to receive a knock-down.

If the team was tired after the Newcastle game, we did we not rotate a bit? Get some fresh legs out there and if it doesn't work out, bring on the rested players in the second half.

There are too many "whys". This season, we are either outstanding or plain awful; we're either battering the opposition with shots and scoring goals, or not getting any shots off and just about hanging on.

The quality is there, but it needs to get over this fear of actually being a good team and this fear that the other team are actually going to make it hard for us to win. The other team pressed and defended well? Big *bleep* deal. Every team does that. It's up to us to face that head on and find ways of winning.

attempts when Theo/Giroud Up front

Dat title

Arsenal back to No Chances Mode...
we looked good in the initial 10 minutes when we showed some urgency.. after that it was all Southampton.. we are lucky to get 1 point.. a self goal and a goal wrongly disallowed..
it was a team performance.. the entire team was poor saving Arteta and may be Koscielny..
Why does this happen so often ? Walcott should never play CF again.. Southampton just needed to make sure that they dont leave space behind them.. How many touches he got.. Added to that he didnt try anything either.. No movement at all.. in the first half we were playing some high balls without any focal point.. saw some decent crosses which Giroud might have put it in.. why does we play this way with Walcott ? This is worst game i have seen of Sagna.. Wilshere and Cazorla were also poor with their passing too.. we have no game through the centre.. Walcott anonymous. Cazorla drifting wide and Wilshere failing to adavance.. our game was played in the flanks and ended with poor crosses and final balls.. the problems are the same.. just we were lucky to pull 4 wins on a row and escape with a draw here..
was happy that Wenger subbed in Giroud early.. yes in the 58th min.. the only positive.. and we are badly in need of some spark in attack.. and here comes Gervinho and Ramsey.. 4 games we didnt see that Forehead and we won.. so with all our rivals winning comfortably in the previous and this week, and difficult games coming up, we are back to CRISIS stage..

Ratings
Sczeny - 6 decent saves.. showed some unusual confusion as whether to stayback or advance at times..
Sagna - 3 worst performance i have seen ever from him.. was he not fit ? kept losing balls throughout the match.. and a poor clearance gifted them the goal.. 2 poor games on a row.. what is happening ?
Vermaelen - 5 average performance.. did well individually.. but there is no organisation or proper communication between our defenders..
Kos - 5 average game..
Gibbs - 4 poor game.. poor concentration.. and had no contribution offensively too..
Arteta - 6 played his part.. only player who was his usual self..
Wilshere - 5 worked hard.. good defensive work.. but his passing was poor most of the time.. and couldnt make an impact in the attack..
Cazorla - 4 poor passing and final balls.. he is supposed to be playing CAM..
Ox - 5 tried his talents which didnt pay off.. looked lively and used his strength to hold the ball.. but his endproduct was poor..
Walcott - 4 should never play CF.. i always hated his attitude.. thinks too great about himself and playing selfish.. no movement or interlinking..
Podolski - 4 was surprised to see his energy last game.. he returned back to his Jaded mode..
Giroud - 5 tried to make things happen but didnt have the quality.. and received no service or crosses..
Gervinho - 3 showed again that he is useless.. Goodbye to Africa..
Ramsey - 4 typical.. all over the pitch without any effect..

Wenger failed us today,

Bench is a joke.

The team is clueless.

How do we keep crossing the ball to Theo?

So lucky we got a point.

How many games are we going to struggle to create a chances?

Wenger sign some players, this team is joke, our luck ran out but the ref saved us.

Wenger what do you have Rosicky on the bench?



ManCity, Liverpool,Westham and Chelsea, what we going to do against them?

Poor mentality,shocking Back four, Loose midfield and clueless manager again.

Was a difficult game. Southampton were deep which nullified Walcott and their fullbacks kept Oxlade/Podolski in check.

They had 5 in midfield which marked out Cazorla and Wilshere.

We were lucky to get away with a point.

Team selection was wrong for me

Rosicky and Arshavin should be our subs not scrubs like Ramsey and Hervinho.

I have to admit this team is lost, we lack a leader.

As soon as i saw Gervais and Ramsey coming on, I knew Southampton were safe

Title is so glaringly accurate, it's almost scary

Lex wrote:As soon as i saw Gervais and Ramsey coming on, I knew Southampton were safe

I know what you saying but, the team was so poor even Gervais and Ramsey could not make it worse.

The loss is Wenger's fault.

We had a shot on target around 69th min, Bayren is just laughing us.

We need to spend money on quality; some individuals in our starting 11 might not be good enough to get us top 4, let alone cups.

ox- big fan of ox but I think he needs to go out on loan for the start of next season like we did with wilshere. i can tell that he really needs experience he is poor defensively and immature going forward.
walcott- well we all know how inconstant walcott is, if we want to win trophies again he shouldn’t be a starter he should be an impact player, that’s is his best role in my opinion.

Midfield- talented individuals but they have no balance. The arteta, wilshere and cazorla combo is just not balanced defensively. And offensively none of them can hold a candle to cesc, i miss him so much. Because of this imbalanced the midfield just can’t dominate any more.

Our attack has NO real quality like we have had in the years past. From wright to henry to rvp and now our best striker is giroud?? Common arsenal have always been known to have TOP quality forwards, And this time we are not going to get one on the cheap, times have changed. This Is why I keep on mentioning players like cavani, people say im unrealistic, people say im dreamimg, but players like that ARE THE ONLY WAY NOW, simple. I shouldn’t be dreaming with a big club like arsenal. It should be reality with the amount of money our fans shed out to the club every match day. WTF IS THIS CLUB DOING?, we are not progressing at all. questions need to be asked.

moreover, i just dont see the work being done on the tactical side of things from Wenger, our team actually does look clueless, i mean we were crossing the ball to walcott...it is as if we just do not know what to do this season. Maybe without the individual brilliance of people like cesc and rvp wenger has been found out as a manager? Our coaching has to be one of the worst in the epl because i just don't see progression from this team, i don't feel like they are learning anything or being told what to do, either that or the players are not listening; or are not good enough to follow the instructions given. They all seem to be "doing there own thing out there", there is no PLAN, defensively or offensively which is worrying.

This is NOT Walcott's fault. If service tonight was a protein shake, Walcott would have died of malnutrition.

It's the same old story. Being pressed into our own half, the defenders passing it sideways to one another and hoofing it up the pitch to no-one

Literally laughed out loud at the title.

I fear Wenger is just playing Walcott up front to get him to sign da ting

Today showed he has a LONG way to go to be a CF all he offers is pace and clinical finishing along with a well timed runs.

Outside of that he is like a ghost, every time the ball came to him he just spun in behind hoping the CB would miss it, he challenged no defenders, did no pressing, didn't hold up the ball at all, threw himself at none of the whipped balls.

No lie we would have been 2 or 3 goals up in the first half hour with some of those Sagna balls whipped in front of that flappy handed keeper if Giroud had started.

Walcott wasn't interested, all Walcott wants to do is run in behind or latch onto a through ball, playing as a CF in any system at the top level is a lot more than that.

CL is a loooong way off we are struggling against some of the worst sides in the league for no reason, we scored 0 goals against Aston Villa LMAO need I say more other teams have relished boosting their goal difference against teams like AV and Southampton.

Why is Rosicky sat on his arse for 90 mins? Why can't Arshavin get a look in with this hopelessly inconsistent team?

Oh gosh consistency has truly departed from this club...

Wenger stop being Stubborn and use 2 strikers if 1 striker is not working.

Lex wrote:This is NOT Walcott's fault. If service tonight was a protein shake, Walcott would have died of malnutrition.

and the actual truth is that walcott did have chances, chances to link the play instead of trying to shoot and prove he is a CF. Hold up play is sorely lacking, in fact its non existent, anyway at least he can say he wasnt the worst player out there

He needs experience upfront but the problem is we don't have time for that.

Lex wrote:This is NOT Walcott's fault. If service tonight was a protein shake, Walcott would have died of malnutrition.

It's the same old story. Being pressed into our own half, the defenders passing it sideways to one another and hoofing it up the pitch to no-one

not walcotts fault but to say he was starved is not true, he had opportunities to do better with the ball than what he did. He is not a CF but atm we are being forced to play him there because our attacking options overall are useless.

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho
Only Man Utd & Chelsea have converted a higher percentage of shots into goals than Arsenal this season. Not creating enough is the problem.

______

That's the reason we are struggling. Cazorla isn't working at No 10. Like REWB said we don't have balance in midfield despite of their talents.

Diaby-Arteta-Cazorla will work. Diaby-Arteta-Wilshere will work. Diaby-Wilshere-Ramsey will work but Arteta-Wilshere-Cazorla isn't and won't

Done with my rant for the night.

Walcott didn't have a great night but the problem was more to do with how isolated he was. Giroud's hold up play is miles better but what difference did he make when he came on? He, too, was just as isolated. Unless you have the ability to make something out of nothing, you're going to struggle in these situations.

Even if Walcott or Giroud drops deeper to get involved in play more, what would they have had in front of them? Movement was terrible from everybody.

The whole team was woefully bad in every aspect of play. The players couldn't clear the ball, they couldn't string more than a couple of passes together, they couldn't dribble past anyone, and they certainly couldn't create any goalscoring chances.

Not creating enough chances has been a prevalent problem all season, but it's hard to make chances when you have nine players camped in your half, barely getting forward to support the attack.

RealGunner wrote:He needs experience upfront but the problem is we don't have time for that.

he is never going to be good enough to be a starter CF for a team like arsenal imo, he just doesn't have the vision or awareness we need. i think we should keep him, but if we were ever to improve and buy quality players to challenge for trophies. He would only ever be a squad/impact player, a good option to have for pace in behind.

Orbinho ‏@Orbinho
Arsenal's top 3 chances created 2011-12 Robin van Persie 62, Aaron Ramsey 55 Alex Song 46. Two sold, one benched.

REWB wrote:

RealGunner wrote:He needs experience upfront but the problem is we don't have time for that.

he is never going to be good enough to be a starter CF for a team like arsenal imo, he just doesn't have the vision or awareness we need. i think we should keep him, but if we were ever to improve and buy quality players to challenge for trophies. He would only ever be a squad/impact player, a good option to have for pace in behind.

Agree to an extent.

I think Theo can work upfront when he plays against certain teams. Giroud should be our no 1 choice though. We did look a bit better when he came on because Southampton were really comfortable with Walcott being isolated. Giroud brought others into the game. Theo can't do that, yet.