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

Arsenal top 4 chances created from open play 2012-13 Cazorla 42, Podolski 24, Gibbs 18, Ramsey 17.

I watched the game twice now as i usualy do. Well i will talk about the positve aspects first, i actually think the midfield played well, and they seem to be getting a good understanding with each other. They lost the ball too much (not arteta) yes, but their interplay was excellent often, whilshere and cazorla were passing the ball very well with each other, and wilshere was dribbling past opponents quite often, i know both of them lost the ball too much but i would still say they deserve a solid rating from this game. Arteta was very reliable as well. Vermealen was better than usual as well.

Now the negatives, well just about everyone. Far too many individual errors, everyone apart from the midfield was either making mistakes, too predictable, or hiding (midfield did make mistakes but contributed a lot as well). On the right flank sagna was awful, miscontrolling the ball, letting it run out of play, passing was terrible, further up chamberlain was just quite predictable, when he tried to dribble down the line it was just too easy to dfend against, his passing was ok but nothing special. On the left podolkis was fully anonymous, and gibbs was hardly helping. I really dont think gibbs is great, he almost lost us the game in the 87 miute when he let puncheon walk past him into the penalty area. Then two minutes later he should have won us the game but his finall ball was average, wilshere and arteta set him up well, he had three options in the area - shoot, square to wilshere, or clip to the far post to walcott unmarked, all were great options but he he mistimed his pass, too slow, and let the defender intercept it. This two minutes demonstrated why he isnt great defensively nor offensively imo. Now golden boy walcott, his defenders will say he was isolated and exempt from critisism, but i disagree he shouldnt be critisised, the reason was isolated was not a lack of support, it was because he did not want to get the ball, he didnt make him self an option for the midfield, when he did he lost the ball usually. He spent most of the game as a ghost. Can he play as a striker for us? this game showed why he cant, not unless our opponents are really garbage.

What is the solution to all this? firstly, we need someone in the forward line that can create, that is the number one priority imo. Adrian would be good, i dont know him well but the way he is described by people he fits the description, although actually when i watch atletico im more impressed by turan.

Defensive midfielder? of course. I would consider playing wilshere as an "AMC", with arteta and a DM, and cazorla as a "AMR", with adrian as the striker (if he is good there)

that could solve quite a lot of our problems imo. I would only have a slight doubt about arteta

and i dont expect sagna to be that bad again

Agreed with that

RealGunner wrote:Arsenal top 4 chances created from open play 2012-13 Cazorla 42, Podolski 24, Gibbs 18, Ramsey 17.

Ramsey..
saw stats from last season.. he was second to RVP.. yes he was laying CAM for the first half of the season.. this season he is 4th with less game time, but still he is there..
How does this corelate with his poor performances..?

All praises from the newcastle game and this! lets not be delusional and think our team is good enough to win 6-7 games in a row. not that we r bad but because of other teams exposing our midfield weakness. arteta is not a DM. we should be using him high up the field. i used to be a Wengerite and loved the Wengerism philosophy but now i feel he's losing it.